DALLAS—City officials in Dallas plan to have the state’s first landfill that speeds production of methane gas through biotechnology, then captures it for conversion into natural gas to be used in homes.

If successful, the McCommas landfill would turn banana peels, milk cartons and newspapers into a series of energy-producing compost piles that could fuel up to 16,000 homes.

The process also could extend the life of the landfill, perhaps up to 100 years through faster decomposition.

McCommas wouldn’t be the first landfill to capture methane gas and reuse it, but it would the first to speed the production of methane.

The process involves burying several layers of pipe across a 30-acre trench, or “cell.” One series of pipes will pump in water and landfill liquid, known as leachate. The moisture will saturate the trash, making a better food source for the naturally occurring organisms that turn the trash into gas.

As gas is produced, a second series of pipes will extract it using vacuum pressure. It will then be sent to an onsite processing plant where carbon dioxide will be separated from methane. The methane then will be transferred to an Atmos Energy pipeline.

There are plans for seven such cells, with construction of the first scheduled to start in October.

“Even though it looks like we’re just burying trash, it’s really a huge science project,” Ron Smith, assistant director of the city’s sanitation department, said in Sunday’s editions of The Dallas Morning News. “It’s probably going to end up being the largest in the country.”

The system can produce methane gas at two to three times the rate of a traditional landfill and could generate $30,000 to $50,000 a month for the city.

McCommas currently captures about 5.6 million cubic feet of methane a day, which is piped to an onsite plant operated by an independent company, Dallas Clean Energy. Some of the city’s estimates show that by 2012, output could exceed 20 million cubic feet per day.

Environmental Protection Agency spokesman Willie Kelley said his agency is planning to teach other cities and landfill owners about the Dallas plan at a September conference.

“This is energy. You want to capture it,” he said.