The bottom hole assembly (BHA) of a modern drill string for directional drilling mainly comprises a drill bit, a rotary steerable system, and a measurement while drilling tool. The tools and subs used on a BHA are screwed together through rotary shouldered threaded connections. Each connection is made up with a pin and a box. These connections are the weakest links when the BHA undergoes a large number of revolutions in a curved well section. When the fatigue life of a connection is consumed during a drilling job, a twist-off would occur, which could result in an enormous amount of non-productive time and possibly loss of the bottom BHA section in the hole. Cold rolling has proven to be able to improve fatigue resistance of a threaded connection by pressing a rolling wheel against the thread root and generating a layer of compressive residual stress at the root. Understanding how cold rolling improves fatigue resistance of a threaded connection is important for optimization of the rolling parameters and prediction of the BHA service life in a given drilling condition. In this paper, a predictive method is presented for fatigue life of a cold rolled threaded connection. A finite element model was developed to simulate the cold rolling process. The resulting deformation and stress states at the root were carried over through makeup of the pin and the box as well as through cyclic bending of the connection. The fatigue life predictions were found to be in favorable agreement with the experimental measurements from full-scale fatigue tests at different bending moment levels applied.

Deep hole drilling is required to install prosthetic devices in surgical implantation. Compared to the common bone drilling processes, deep hole bone drilling is performed with a larger hole depth (i.e., up to a depth of approximately 35 mm in cochlear implantation) using a high ratio of the length to diameter of the drill bit. For successful outcomes from this process, forces must be controlled adequately to avoid other complications such as drill-bit breakage or thermal necrosis. This study investigates the thrust force and torque generated in bone drilling process of up to 36 mm drilling depth. Drilling tests were performed on bovine cortical bone using 2.5 mm diameter twist drill bit with a spindle speed of 3000 rpm, and feed rates of 0.05, 0.075, and 0.1 mm/rev. Two distinct states in both the thrust force and torque data were observed for all conditions, which are called normal and abnormal states in this study. At an early stage of the drilling process, the force signals showed the traditional trend, reaching a constant value once the tip of the drill bit was fully engaged in bone cutting up to a certain depth. After that, both thrust force and torque kept increasing rapidly until the final drilling depth. This study also observed that the chip morphology varies with increasing drilling depth, showing fragmented chips at the normal state and powdery chips at the abnormal state. Chip clogging and increased frictional force between chips, tool, and hole wall with larger drilling depth may cause the abrupt increase in forces and variation in chip morphology.

The Measurement While Drilling (MWD) tool is used by oil and gas industry to provide the directional survey information while drilling. With rig rates exceeding $1 million per day and wells that are drilled at depths of over 30,000 ft (9144 m), operators needs to have an MWD tool that can self-power itself to provide high data rates and strong signal strength. Among different types of MWD tool, the Continuous Mud-Pulse Telemetry (C-MPT) can generate high data rates and signal strength. The C-MPT has a rotating valve that propagates signal upstream through the drilling fluid in the drill string. However, the ability to power a C-MPT for the MWD tool using the existing hydraulic forces of the drilling fluid has not been extensively researched. The focus of this study was to propose the 2-lobe and 3-lobe turbo siren designs that can provide power to an alternator while maintain high data rates and signal strength. All turbo siren designs are based on a vein, rotor, and stator. The turbo siren systems were manufactured with 3D printing. An experimental wind tunnel was designed and built to simulate the downhole drilling environment. The testing results of the turbo siren systems are presented and discussed, including no-load rotation speed (RPM), stall torque, power and data rate. The results provide the guidance for the optimization of the self-powered MWD turbo siren design.

The use of natural fiber reinforced composites has emerged as an advantageous option in many industrial applications. Generally, composites are manufactured in net or near-net shape, but under specific design specifications, secondary manufacturing processes such as drilling, milling and turning become a requirement. In this context, current paper presents an experimental study that investigates the machinability of newly developed natural fiber composites under conventional end-milling. Two types of bio-composites; date palm fronds reinforced polypropylene (DPF/PP) and pine needles reinforced polypropylene composite (PN/PP) were developed and physically tested in order to optimize their mechanical strength. Then, machinability of such class of bio-composites is statistically analyzed using Design of Experiment method. Statistical modeling including response surface plots are utilized to analyze the combined effect of input processing parameters (feed rate, axial depth, spindle speed) on the induced delamination during end-milling. It is shown that feed rate is the most dominant factors in DPF/PP milling, and axial depth of cut is the most significant factor on PN/PP milling. Results are also compared with those of milled neat polypropylene, which confirm that delamination of machined bio-composites can be improved over the neat polypropylene matrix. This qualifies the developed bio-composites to be used in industrial applications in which machining is required.

Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) is favoured in the aerospace, automotive, structural and sports-based industries due to its high strength-to-weight ratio, rigidity and comparatively higher stiffness. CFRP is termed as a difficult-to-machine material due to the problems associated with its machined quality, surface integrity and tooling cost. As per the industrial applications and requirements, drilling operation is mainly conducted on the CFRP material. Due to the layered structure of CFRP material, drilling operation produces defects such as delamination, burr formation, uncut fiber, fiber breakout and fiber pullout etc. These defects are mainly observed at the entrance and exit of the drilled hole. This poor surface finish and associated defects can play a very critical role towards the load carry capacity, reliability and service life of the final product, especially if the component is more prone to experience fatigue type of loading. There are several applications where the requirement is to have a hole at some inclination angle. To facilitate and develop the understanding of CFRP machining performance under inclined drilling, the presented study is focused on the drilling of inclined hole. The study will also incorporate different lubrication strategies such as dry cutting, conventional flood and minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) during the drilling of CFRP material.

Cutting pressure models have long been utilized for calculating machining force components both tangential and normal. This work lists literature-reported closed form analytical models for torque and thrust of material cutting pressures. Typically, these models are equations formulated in terms of process parameters including mainly cutting speed (V, m/min), feed (f, mm/rev), and tool rake angle (α, degrees). This work aims to benefit from the variation in rake angle and cutting speeds encountered along the lip cutting edge of a standards twist drill to generate normal and tangential cutting pressure empirical models for aluminum 6061-T6 material based on a limited number of drilling feed rate and spindle speed combinations. To isolate the 10mm twist drill bit cutting edge forces, drilling experiments were conducted utilizing 2.5mm pre-cored workpieces. Cutting lip edge toque and thrust data were collected from conducted series of drilling experiments with total number of 10 varying combinations of feed rate and spindle speeds. Values of cutting pressure in terms of feed, speed, and rake angle parameters were identified using a custom-developed MATLAB ® code. Minimized is the difference between the cutting pressure-based closed form torque and thrust models versus the experimentally collected cutting lip torque and thrust measurements. Based on this MATLAB ® code, cutting feed, speed and rake angle parameters found around −0.2, −0.1 and 1.5 respectively based on a convergence criteria of 10 −10 and maximum iteration number of 1000. These optimized cutting pressure parameters were found to predict well the collected experimental forces and were found to be in line with parameter values as reported in the literature.

As alternative to complex modeling, simple empirical equations that provide estimates of the chisel edge’s torque and thrust cutting force components are a useful tool for estimating chisel cutting forces. This work aim to develop a model capable of estimating torque and thrust forces generated by only the drill’s chisel edge as function of machining feed (f), cutting velocity (V), and chisel edge’s width (w). The chisel edge’s generated machining forces are quantified and statistically verified utilizing JMP-SAS/STAT ® design of experiment (DOE) software. An experimental setup involving 50 drilling tests was conducted with drilling feed, spindle speed and chisel web dimensions varied to enhance the statistical significance of the collected data. Experimental torque and thrust data were collected using a 4-channel rotary dynamometer (Kistler model 9123) at a 200 Hz sampling rate. Torque and thrust values encountered at the chisel edge were isolated from those of the full drill. Due to its wide industrial use, the workpiece material investigated is Aluminum 6061-T6. In-line with literature, reported values of experimentally collected data showed that chisel edge’s forces increased with drilling feed and drill bit web dimension while decreased with increasing speed (perhaps due to thermal softening). JMP-SAS/STAT ® module, nonlinear fitting with convergence criteria of 10 −15 and 70 iterations was utilized The developed model equations allow the estimation of the forces encountered at the chisel edge of a classical twist drill while cutting aluminum alloy 6061-T6 material.

Minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) machining is gaining wide acceptance because of the need to make machining more environment friendly. With cutting fluids contributing more than 10–15% of the manufacturing costs, economics of MQL is also gaining interest. The initial cost of commercial MQL systems is one of the limiting factors hindering their adoption in small and medium scale industries. This study, uses a simple commercial paint sprayer with a portable compressor (with a total cost < $125) to produce an MQL like spray with a slightly higher flow rate as compared to MQL (and is thus called reduced quantity lubrication) in drilling Ti6Al4V. Tungsten carbide drills of 7 mm diameter were subjected to deep cryogenic treatment, which has been acknowledged as a means of improving tool wear resistance. There was a marginal improvement in drill microhardness as a result of cryogenic treatment. The performance of untreated and cryo-treated drills was compared for tool wear, hole surface roughness and cutting forces. In addition to the normal air-coolant mist, the effect of adding nano-particles in the coolant was also studied. It is found that cryo-treated drills under nano-fluid based reduced quantity lubrication (RQL) conditions performed better than untreated drills and conventional cutting fluids, in terms of all the three measured parameters. This can be attributed to the higher thermal conductivity of nano-fluid based coolants and their ability to reduce the coefficient of friction at the chip-tool interface.

The manufacturing of hard and refractory materials such as ceramics, glass or carbide poses particular challenges on tools and machines. The Sauer Limited a company of the DMG Mori Corporation has developed ultrasonic tool holders working in a frequency range from 15 to 60 kHz. The ultrasonic vibrations are superimposing the tool movement in the tool axis especially for the application on special materials. This technique causes a structural weakening in the contact area and facilitates the machining. For these special materials, a force reduction, mainly in drilling into carbide with diamond tools, of up to 30 percent is possible. This made the authors try to expand the application range of this method. To achieve evaluable results, the authors decided to start working with existing processes. This also makes it easier to understand the mechanism of the positive influence of the ultrasonic assistance. It is difficult to compare a grinding process of hard and brittle materials to the drilling of steel as these two operations are different in many ways. In the first case of investigation, the authors use tools with geometrically undefined edges, where as in the second case, the edges are geometrically defined. To get valid results of the tests, it has then been decided to investigate drilling. This manufacturing method anticipates the best results. The main target of the investigation is to reduce the cutting force. It is measured with a force measurement platform underneath the workpiece. Concerning the direction of the ultrasonic assistance, the authors expect lower cutting forces, longer endurance of the tool, a reduction of the burr height and a better surface quality in the drilling process. To verify the frequencies and the amplitudes, an FFT-analysis is performed. This analysis shows the increase of the damping. This raise depends on the infeed rate of the tool and thus reduces the amplitude of the cutting force.

During drilling operations, drill string interacts continuously with rock formation, which result in severe shock and vibrations. Lateral, torsion and axial vibration modes often cause failures of Bottom Hole Assembly (BHA), drill pipe abrasive wear, drill bit and wall borehole damages. It also leads to reduction in Rate of Penetration (ROP) and consequently incur unnecessarily high costs. The Lagrangian approach has been used in this study to attain drill pipe lateral and torsional vibration coupling equations of motion. The mathematical model is expressed in terms of four independent degrees of freedom. The effects of bending and torsion vibrations, and whirling motion of the drill string are incorporated in the developed model. A set of nonlinear equations are solved numerically to obtain the response of the system. In this work, we also present a brief description of an in-house constructed experimental setup. The setup has the capability to imitate the downhole axial, lateral and torsional vibration modes and mechanisms. Experimental investigations for the drill pipe fatigue failure due to lateral and torsional cyclic stresses induced in the drill string are also presented. Such investigations are essential for oil/gas industry as they provide solutions for very common problems such as drill string fatigue failure. The performance of the setup was validated. Numbers of tests were performed to investigate the effects of rotational speeds on the vibration amplitudes of different drill string sizes.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Pittsburgh Mining Research Division (PMRD) conducts a wide variety of mining-related health and safety research. As part of this research, PMRD’s Workplace Health Branch maintains a Noise Control Team tasked with developing noise controls to reduce future incidences of noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) among the nation’s mining workforce. A noise control project that PMRD is currently investigating is the development of noise controls to reduce the noise emissions from jumbo drills. Operators of jumbo drills are frequently overexposed to noise, putting them at risk of NIHL. A key contributor to the noise at the operator location is the noise radiated from the jumbo drill string, or drill rod. Jumbo drilling is rotary-percussive in nature, and the drill string is mechanically excited by the cutting of the media as well as by a percussive hammer. These excitations travel from the bit/rock interface and from the drifter hammer into the drill string, vibrating the structure and causing it to radiate noise. The development of an instrumented drill string will allow NIOSH to quantify the forces within the drill string during drilling, providing critical information for the development of jumbo drill noise controls.

Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is the second most prevalent illness in the mining industry. According to a study conducted by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), in which over 42,000 audiograms from metal/nonmetal miners were analyzed, approximately 70% of miners have hearing impairment as compared to 9% of non-occupationally noise-exposed workers. One of the machines used extensively in metal/nonmetal mines responsible for high noise exposure levels of its operators is the jumbo drill, used to drill holes at the mines for blasting purposes. In this context, NIOSH is conducting research to develop engineering noise controls for jumbo drills that would reduce the prevalence of hearing loss among operators of this equipment. The first step of the noise control development process consists of identifying and ranking dominant noise sources present during operation of the jumbo drill. To this end, a noise study was conducted at NIOSH’s laboratories in which a microphone phased array system was used to identify dominant noise sources, and the transfer path analysis method was used to rank these sources based on their contribution to the operator location. Results showed that the drill string and the drilling mechanism — known as the drifter — are the dominant sound-radiating components in the operation of the jumbo drill.

During drilling, the precipitation velocity of cuttings within an annulus depends on the density, configuration, and size of the cuttings, and on the density, viscosity, and rheological characteristics of the drilling fluid. In this study, in order to identify transfer features of cuttings, an experiment was performed under wide-ranging conditions by constructing a slim hole annulus (44 mm × 30 mm) device. In this experiment, the pressure loss and the particle transport ratio were measured in upward flow of Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids. These quantities were influenced by particle concentration within the flow, pipe rotation, flow rate, and inclination of the annulus. For both water and CMC (carboxymethylcellulose) solutions, the higher the concentration of the solid particles is, the larger the pressure gradients become. The experimental uncertainty of this study varies from a minimum of 3% to a maximum of 9% depending on the experimental conditions.

To improve the capacity of the two-phase fluid movement through the horizontal pipes, in the turbulent regime, it is necessary to determine as correctly as possible the turbulent drag coefficient and to be estimated the associated energetic balance. For a hydrodynamic flow, the gas-liquid interfacial distribution may have different possible forms, with effect in various flow patterns, due to the different flow rates of the fluid and gas. Usually, we may express the dimensionless pressure gradients as drag coefficients. During the time, some analytical available methods, described the two-phase flows in the horizontal tubes. In previous researches, the author has tested four models: the homogeneous model, the separated-flow model, the mechanistic models, and the drift-flux model. In the present paper, there were selected to accomplish the research, the results obtained from the first three mentioned models. The theoretical and experimental results proved that there are more accurate and more suitable for the actual dedicated applications. The two-phase flow is important in a large variety of applications from engineering, such as natural gas production, oil transportation, the drilling, the food processing, polymer processing industry, pharmaceutical domains, etc. In the case of flow for a single phase, the shear forces on the wall create friction, losses, followed by a pressure decreasing, known as linear hydraulic losses. In the case of the two-phase flows, an additional interaction appears between the two phases, having as consequence a supplementary difficulty in the evaluation of the pressure drop. For the mentioned models, there were considered different flow rates for oil and gas. We vary in laboratory the gas flow rate. For each model the variables were made dimensionless, to enable generalization at different types of horizontal tubes, pipelines, with different diameters. The accuracy of the developed correlations from this paper is evaluated by comparing the predictions of previous calculations and correlations with the measured and obtained results, and with the data from technique literature. The relation between the pressure gradient and mass flow is expressed also in dimensionless form, as a relation between the drag factor and the Reynolds number, considered for the two-phase flow. This one was correlated with the generalized Reynolds number, with values from 6000 to 140000. For this Reynolds range were tested in the laboratory more than 200 measurements points, for each of the three selected models. The analyzed cases allowed the estimation in a proper manner of the accuracy of the drag turbulent factor, by calculating all 10 statistical parameters, for pipes up to 80 cm.

Due to their flexibility, low cost and large working volume, 6-axis articulated industrial robots are being used increasingly for drilling, trimming and machining operations. However, producing high quality components has proven to be difficult, as a result of the inherent problems of robots, including low structural stiffness, hence excitation of structural modes, low positional accuracy, and bandwidth limitations associated with dynamics and control. These limit robotic machining to non-critical components and parts with low accuracy and surface finish requirements. As a part of the “Light Controlled Factory” project at the University of Bath, studies have been carried out to improve robotic machine capability, specifically positioning accuracy and vibration reduction. This paper describes experimental studies in reducing robot machining vibrations induced by cutting forces with active vibration control, using accelerometers to measure vibration and inertial actuators to mitigate vibration forces. With a relatively simple controller, a 25% reduction of RMS vibration amplitude is demonstrated.

This work reports on an empirical study to account for the effects of the drilling parameters of cutting speed: V, m/s (max at the outer periphery), tool feed (f, mm/rev)), and drill diameter (D, mm) on the generated thrust (T, N) and torque (M, N.m). A total of 50 drilling tests were conducted on a vertical machining center based on design of experiment (DOE) test matrix using JMP-SAS/STAT ® software. The test matrix employed 2 different aluminum alloys: one wrought (6061-T6) and another cast (A356-T6) with both tempered to the T6 condition. Two classical chisel drills of different diameters (10mm and 12.7mm) were used. Drilling parameter variables employed varied from very mild to very aggressive combinations including 5 values of spindle speeds (796, 1592, 3183, 6366, and 9868 rpm) and 5 values of drilling feeds (0.04, 0.08, 0.16, 0.32, 0.64 mm/rev). Drilling forces and torques were recorded using a 4-component dynamometer (Kistler model 9123) at sampling rate of 200 Hz. At full drill engagement, cutting torque and thrust status were identified for each drilling test case. By fitting to the measured drilling forces, power law equations with parametric variables D, f, and V are developed. Initial values of the model’s power coefficients were initially identified using Matlab ® using a least square optimization function with target to minimize the difference between the predicting model and the experimental data. These values were fed as initially-guessed values to the nonlinear modeling Gauss method in JMP-SAS/STAT ® with 50 observations for each set of experiments. For both torque and thrust and for both aluminum alloys employed, the model’s coefficient values were identified setting the convergence criteria to 10 −15 with total of 60 iterations. For both thrust and torque, it was found that the power coefficients for feed and cutting speed are statistically significant (better than p-values < 0.05) with values of about 0.7 and −0.1, respectively.

Edge Finishing processes used in this study included Abrasive Water Jet and Carbide Router Endmilling for the trimming of the laminate material. For drilling of holes in the laminate material, Polycrystalline Diamond drills and Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD) diamond coated carbide drills were used. Test material was machined with these processes and resultant surface integrity was recorded using a Surface Profilometer, Edge Replication using acetate tape and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The machining processes result in macroscopic defects which lead to the damage evolving with service loadings which can result in failure of the CFRP laminates in service. This study was conducted to research the effects of machining processes on residual strength of laminates. A 20 ply thick balanced symmetric [90/-45/0/-45/90/45/0/-45/0/90/0]s laminate was used in this study with a nominal thickness of 4.19 mm and with an average ply thickness of 190 μm. The laminate had a top layer of woven fabric material [0/90] and a bottom layer of fiberglass skin material. Mechanical testing was conducted on test specimens to failure for the tensile strength, compressive strength, open-hole tensile strength, open hole compressive strength and bearing strength. The failure mode and damage of the test specimens for each case was examined and discussed.

A drill collar is a thick-walled tubular component that provides a passage to pumping drilling fluids and a mechanical protection for sensing, power supply, communication, and control devices. Multiple collars can be screwed together along with other downhole tools to make a bottomhole assembly (BHA). Radially oriented ports are often used in the wall of a collar for various reasons. These ports could be susceptible to fatigue-induced failures when a BHA has to undergo a large number of revolutions in a curved well. A cracked port could result in leakage, thereby causing flood damage to the internal devices, which are supposed to be protected from drilling fluid. Understanding the risk of fatigue cracking of a collar port is an important part of BHA design and well planning. The total fatigue life of a port can be considered as a summation of the crack initiation life, which is consumed to nucleate a dominant crack with a minimum detectable size, and the crack growth life, which is measured as the crack grows from the minimum detectable size until it reaches the seal. Prediction of the initiation life is expected to be conservative due to the many uncertainties involved. As a result, solely relying on the predicted initiation life to retire a port and the entire collar is not cost effective. A more economical way of port fatigue management is to compute the crack growth life based on a minimum detectable crack size and use this life as the inspection interval. If a crack is detected during an inspection, a port is declared as failed because a cracked port cannot be repaired with the same strength. Otherwise, the port can last at least until the next scheduled inspection. In this study, a fracture-mechanics-based method is developed to predict the fatigue crack growth (FCG) life of a collar port subjected to constant-amplitude cyclic bending. It is assumed that a prescribed corner crack with a minimum detectable size lies in a plane perpendicular to the collar axis. It intersects with the collar outside surface and the port wall surface. The crack front follows an elliptical function. The stress intensity factors (SIFs) along the crack front are numerically computed with finite element analysis (FEA) at the two endpoints, respectively. A response surface of the SIF is generated by assigning a set of predetermined crack fronts based on incrementally advancing positions of the two endpoints. It is then used to determine the SIFs at these points throughout all crack growth increments. The Paris law is utilized to describe the FCG rate of the collar material, whereby, along with the SIFs computed, the crack growth life and the associated crack front shape are incrementally determined. To validate the newly developed method, a test apparatus is developed to apply constant-amplitude cyclic bending to a collar specimen that contains a through-hole in the middle. The predicted growth rate for the crack on the collar outside surface agrees favorably well with the test data. The computed crack front before rupture is also in good agreement with the experimental measurement.

Solids suspension has broad applications in the oil and gas industry (i.e., sand production, cuttings transportation during drilling, and barite sag in drilling fluids). The conventional modeling approaches for solids suspension and transportation include mechanics models (i.e., layer models) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) based Eulerian-Lagrangian models. One of the most important assumptions for these approaches is that the solid particles have uniform size, which is not true in the actual applications. The computational fluid dynamics/discrete element method (CFD-DEM) approach can track each single particle in the system; however, the computational time is not practical for industrial applications. This paper presents a relatively simple Eulerian approach for characterizing solids suspension in multiphase flow systems. The multiphase flow equations are derived by using a proper averaging procedure without considering interphase mass transfer. A proposed new solids suspension model, which is based on the fluid-solid interaction and kinetic theory, account for multiple solids sizes in the flow. The suspension characterizations for particles with different sizes are considered by introducing a particle size distribution function, which also captures detailed particle distribution and fluid/particle and particle/particle interactions. Therefore, a more realistic solids transportation prediction can be achieved. A simulation package is developed by solving the model using the finite difference method. The boundary-fitted coordinate system is applied to integrate the irregular geometry caused by drillpipe eccentricity and a packed solids bed. The influence of the solid phase on the carrier fluid is considered, and solid-liquid two-way coupling is implemented. The simulation package has been used for transient hole cleaning simulations during drilling. Simulation results show that cuttings’ backsliding makes the hole cleaning process in intermediate inclined wells different from that in horizontal and highly inclined wells. The cuttings movement in this part of the well follows the two-steps-forward, one-step-back routine. Well packoff is also captured by the program for improper hole cleaning operations in an intermediated inclined position. Transient hole cleaning tests were conducted on a 90 ft long, 8 × 4.5 in. flow loop. Experimental data are compared with the simulation results, and good matching is obtained. This method can also be used as a general tool for solids suspension and transportation simulation in multiphase systems.

Methane emissions from US landfills equal 14% of US residential natural gas consumption, and represent a significant waste of energy. This work presents and analyzes three concepts for landfill gas (LFG) utilization, which impact the water, electricity and food sectors. The first novel concept uses LFG to power refrigeration cycles to enable atmospheric water harvesting (AWH). Freshwater produced by LFG-based AWH can be used for water intensive operations (drilling, hydraulic fracturing) in oilfields located near landfills. The second concept is about routing LFG to nearby natural gas-fired power plants, instead of using it for onsite electricity generation. This approach is attractive, since both landfills and power plants are concentrated around population centers. The third novel concept uses LFG as the feedstock and energy source for ammonia production, which is the starting point for fertilizers. A framework and methodology for quantifying the benefits of these concepts is established. Emissions from landfills in Texas are analyzed to map the current LFG management, and quantify the benefits of the proposed concepts. Firstly, LFG-based AWH can meet 14% of the water requirement of the Barnett Shale, which can be served by 20 landfills. Secondly, routing the LFG to gas-fired power plants will enable a 3% increase in statewide installed capacity. Importantly, five power plants can increase their capacity by more than 10%. Thirdly, LFG can be used to produce 3,200 tons of ammonia daily, which yields enough fertilizer to cultivate nine times the current area under corn cultivation. Overall, these concepts offer alternatives to LFG-based onsite electricity generation, which enables utilization of only 22% of the generated LFG. The proposed waste-to-value concepts can be extended to other regions and offer options to augment water, electricity and food production globally.