METHANE EMISSIONS FROM LANDFILLS: PROBLEMS AND SOLUTION

METHANE EMISSIONS FROM LANDFILLS: PROBLEMS AND SOLUTION

Abstract

This study was carried out on problems and solutions of methane emissions from landfills. Methane, one of the main greenhouse gases (GHGs), has been assessed to have 28 times the global warming potential (GWP) of carbon dioxide over a 100-year time horizon in the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills, methane is generated as a product of the anaerobic degradation of organic waste. United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) estimated that, in 2016, landfill methane emissions in the U.S. were approximately 107.7 million tons carbon dioxide equivalent (Mt CO2 e). And globally, it was estimated that methane emissions from landfilling of solid waste were 794.0 million tons of CO2 e in 2005. At both the U.S. and the global levels, landfilling was the third largest source of methane emissions, after enteric fermentation and natural gas & oil systems. A broad range of topics about methane emissions from landfill are covered in this report, including the gas-generating processes in landfill, the theories about modeling landfill gas generation and emission, the developed models and the current estimates of landfill emissions, as well as the calculation and analysis on several aspects: 1) theoretical maximum methane generation per ton of MSW and actual methane emission per ton of MSW; 2) climate zone statistics about landfill gas generation model parameter, landfill methane generation, emission and recovery; 3) the time series of global landfill methane emissions with regional analysis and per capita analysis. The findings provide both theoretical information and empirical data on landfill methane emissions. Currently, the most widely used model could be the 2006 IPCC Guidelines First-Order Decay (FOD) Method, which has been used by many countries to develop their national greenhouse gas inventories. In recent years, new methods based on direct measurements have been developed, such as the BackCalculation Method used in the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP).

 

 

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