Methane gas from Akron’s closed Hardy Road Landfill soon will produce electricity to help power the city’s sewage-treatment plant.Hull & Associates Inc. and the city on Monday announced an agreement to recover landfill gas and to produce about 30 percent of the electricity needed to power the sewage plant off Akron-Peninsula Road in the Cuyahoga Valley.Hull plans to break ground for the project this year and have all the equipment installed and in operation by August.The acquisition and installation of the 850-kilowatt electrical generation and distribution equipment will be performed entirely by Hull at its cost, the parties announced.Hull, based in the Columbus suburb of Dublin, will sell the electricity generated by the project back to Akron for less than what the city is currently is paying for electricity.The city also will hold rights to use any excess landfill gas, along with potentially using the waste heat from the generator to warm buildings at the sewage plant.The landfill is expected to generate about 7,000 megawatt hours of electricity a year — enough to power 600 to 700 houses.The agreement with Hull and the $32 million expansion of the anaerobic digester at the city-owned composting plant off Riverview Road will mean that Akron is generating nearly 90 percent of the electricity for the sewage plant, Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic said.“By recovering the landfill gas and using it to produce green electricity and building heat, the project will help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and conserve natural resources for future generations,” said Rick Merolla, Akron’s public service director.Municipal landfills are the largest source of human-related methane emissions in the United States. Landfill gas is created as solid waste decomposes. The gas consists of about 50 percent methane, the primary component of natural gas. The city-owned Hardy Road Landfill, closed in 2002, produces about 17,500 standard cubic feet per hour, which is currently being burned off.The city previously sold the landfill’s gas rights to Mel Kurtz, but he was unable to put together a deal to use the gas. Hull & Associates bought out his interests.Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.