Biogas and Landfill Gas as Sources of Renewable Energy in the Republic of Belarus

Landfill gas with hydrogen addition – A fuel for SI engines

Landfilling is commonly being developed as a renewable source of energy through the systematic recovery and utilization of biogas generated during anaerobic de composition of municipal solid wastes. In India there is good scope for the de velopment of landfill gas technology as municipal solid waste contains a high proportion of degradable organic matter. Biogas generation from various sources is also seen as a key renewable energy source in the National Energy Policy. In the developed countries landfill gas (LFG) systems are established and a sizeable proportion of renewable energy is generated and utilized from landfills. Based on this experience, particularly in the U.K., a a strategic plan for the development of LFG technology in India is outlined. LFG technology involves: (i) estimation of ultimate yield and generation rates of LFG on the basis of waste composition; (ii) design of an LFG abstraction system appropriate to site conditions and landfilling practices; and (iii) cost-effective gas utilization schemes. In India, the labour-oriented solid waste management systems concentrate more on the collection and trans portation stages. Disposal is mostly limited to uncontrolled filling of low-lying areas. As the solid waste contains a good proportion of degradable organic matter, and there is a growing energy demand in every sector of economy, there is good scope for controlled LFG generation, recovery and utilization. For systematic development of LFG technology in India a comparison with the established approach adopted in the U.K. is presented. Against this backdrop a methodology for the development of LFG technology in India is outlined. This includes the investigations comprising solid waste characterization and estimation of LFG on a national basis, development of appropriate landfilling practices, gas recovery systems and utilization schemes, and an appropriate institutional frame work and data base. © 1997 ISWA

A STRATEGY FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF LANDFILL GAS TECHNOLOGY IN INDIA

Economic and environmental evaluation of landfill gas utilisation: A multi-period optimisation approach for low carbon regions

Landfill gas (LFG) is a mixture of gases mainly CH4 and CO2 which are the most problematic of the greenhouse gases (GHGs) due primarily to their highest rate of accumulation in the environment. These two main GHGs are emitted from most landfills in developing countries. As a mitigation measure, the gases can be collected and utilized as renewable energy source. This research therefore aimed at planning the utilization of LFG for renewable energy production using linear programing approach executed in general algebraic modeling system (GAMS) and applied to Seelong landfill in Johor, Malaysia as the case study. GAMS (the optimizer) selects the most profitable LFG utilization technology from a number of options such as: gas engine, gas turbine and steam turbine for electricity or combined heat and power production; steam boiler for steam production; direct LFG distribution to residences/industries as substitutes to natural gas. The results from the optimizer gave a maximum profit of USD2.54 million per year. This included revenues from product sale and carbon credit. The results also revealed that GHG reduction of about 9,000 tons CO2eq were accomplished, and thus this is environmentally and economically beneficial environmentally (in terms of carbon credit). Furthermore, the optimization results revealed that steam turbine running on low grade LFG is the most feasible option in terms of profitability and environmental consideration. This approach can be applied to any sanitary landfill as a means of simultaneously curbing GHG emission and generating revenue.

Turkish government agencies support capital investments in electricity generation from renewable energy sources. When making support decisions related with renewable electrical energy sources, the government agencies should consider various issues such as renewability, cleanliness, origin of the source, supply security, cost per kilowatt hour (kWh), and total electricity generation capacity. The tariff mechanism being used in Turkey provides constant rates per kWh of electricity generated from renewable energy sources. The levels of the rates are determined to stimulate renewable energy sources’ usage. In this paper, instead of a constant rate, a feed-in tariff is calculated for each individual electricity generation project using renewable energy source and its level is increased according to the source’s desirability with respect to other renewable energy sources. Various criteria are taken into account in determination of electrical energy sources’ desirability. Furthermore, a combination of two multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approaches (the fuzzy versions of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS)) is used in obtaining a ranking among alternative renewable electrical energy sources. The developed support model’s applicability is illustrated in this paper. The new model developed in this paper has many key benefits. For example, for an individual renewable electrical energy project, final cost per kWh can be calculated and multiplied by new Support Constant to calculate feed-in tariff purchase price per kWh. In another key benefit of the developed model, only local instead of state-wide renewable electrical energy projects can be compared within the AHP-TOPSIS decision hierarchy.

Because landfill gas (LFG) contains an abundance of methane, the utilization of LFG as a renewable energy source is becoming popular in many countries. LFG, however, contains various trace constituents, some of which may pose problems during utilization. For example, siloxanes and halogenated volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can cause difficulties when present in the fuel of gas engines. In addition, many VOCs and mercury have harmful effects on human health, especially on the health of workers at landfill sites and people living near the landfills. Energy recovery from LFG is expected to make great progress in the near future, particularly in Asia, but we found little information on the trace constituents of LFG in this region. Therefore, we sought to characterize the trace components in LFG generated in two landfill sites in China and one site in Japan, to determine the typical concentrations of these trace components in LFG, and to compare their concentrations among landfill sites in Asia. We concluded that the trace components in LFG at the sites studied were mainly siloxanes generated from sewage sludge and harmful benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene compounds from petroleum products.

PurposeThe aim of the paper is to examine the renewable energy resources for enhancing a green energy development in the face of energy crisis and climate change, and to explore the prospects for “new” renewable energy sources and the green energy initiatives taken in the Pacific Island countries (PICs).Design/methodology/approachThe data were collated from a wide variety of sources including policy documents, road maps, reports, research articles on renewable and green energy sources. The methodology adopted was primarily a qualitative one based on a “content analysis”.FindingsThe findings reveal that increasing emphases have been given recently to “new” renewable and green energy sources in the Pacific Island countries as mitigation and adaptation strategies to fuel crisis and climate change. PICs have taken a wide range of green energy initiatives including “biomass”, solar, wind and other non‐traditional renewable energy sources and bio‐fuels development. Prospects for coconut, copra and palm‐oil based bio‐fuels do exist in many PICs. Opportunities for ethanol bio‐fuels also exist especially in Fiji.Practical implicationsRenewable and green energy sources are of practical implications to PICs. There is, however, a greater need for framing sound energy policies by the PICs.Originality/valueThe author has brought out clear linkages between climate change and green energy development and analyzed the importance of new renewable energy sources, especially in PICs. The paper has higher policy relevance and it is of great value in the context of sustainable energy development in PICs.

The article is analyses normative-legal regulation and public policy system of the renewable energy sources (RES) in the Russian Federation and Canada. The authors analyzed the normative-legal base of RES formation, generation and effect on the development of domestic and foreign policy of the states. An attempt is made to describe and compare environmental and legal approaches to the application and realization of RES and their impact on the development of the Russian Federation and Canada. The article analyzes “green” energy on the basis of state approaches and natural- geographical conditions of the territory of the states at its formation. In the Russian Federation the main RES sectors are solar energy, wind energy, hydropower, energy obtained from biomass and waste processing, biogas, and landfill gas. In Canada, the main clean energy sectors are more province-specific and additionally include geothermal energy, green hydrogen and territorial tidal phenomena. The RES analysis will help to identify the specifics and opportunities for application and formation of new mechanisms of state policy and improvement of the regulatory framework in the Russian Federation. The main difference between the Canadian and Russian approach to legislative regulation is the two-tier regulation: the general directions of sustainable development and the four-year strategy are fixed at the federal level, while the main legislative regulation is carried out at the provincial level, depending on regional priorities in the development of certain RES types. The experience of Canada’s “distributed” regulatory framework can be used to improve Russian legislation, as it will help to take into account regional priorities in the development of certain RES types and implement short-term renewable energy projects.

The electricity market for Renewable Energy (RE) Sources (RES) has to be transformed into a market that is more competitive and decentralized than the current one, given the failure of subsidy policies, like the Feed-In-Tariff (FIT) policy, and the increase in the number of small producers but also in the number of power utilities. Clearly, each utility must follow regulation rules regarding the proportion of RES units it must have in its energy mix, in order to avoid emission penalties. Following a decentralized market scheme, we address the problem of allocating a total amount of RE demanded by a set of utilities in a local market to individual RES microgrids (MGs) that can cover the demands, considering two supply policies. In the first policy, a RES producer is assumed to be able to split its production into smaller parts so that it can supply multiple utilities, and a simple allocation algorithm is presented. In the second policy, a RES producer, due to market or technical constraints, cannot split its production and share it among utilities. In this case, we provide an algorithm that solves the problem effectively by viewing it as a knapsack problem. If the cost functions of MGs are independent of the utilities to which they sell (e.g., negligible transportation costs), the results show that the non-divisible policy slightly benefits the MGs. However, in a decentralized market, it is natural to assume that the cost functions of the producers depend on the location of the utilities. To account for this, we provide two more allocation algorithms under both examined supply policies. In this case, the non-divisible policy is much more profitable for MGs and, moreover, the entrance of new utilities in the market clearly benefits them over the divisible case.

Regional prediction of long-term landfill gas to energy potential

The US consumes large quantities of electricity. As a result, there is a growing concern that energy may not be readily available in the future. This worry is compounded by the depletion of traditional sources such as coal, petroleum, and natural gas. Municipal solid waste in landfills is a resource the country may utilize as a renewable source of energy, as the gas produced from landfills can be used to power generators for electricity production, rather than wasted and flared to comply with Resource Conservation and Recovery Act standards. Systems that utilize reciprocating internal combustion engines, microturbines, and molten carbonate fuel cells can feasibly and cleanly reduce landfill gas emissions while producing electricity. However, these methods require input work and initial investments. The main economic goal is to maximize energy production. After economic analysis, the molten carbonate fuel cell system was determined to be the most efficient due to its versatility and low emissions. The successful implementation of the system may result in the propagation of the system, the increase in value of landfill gas, and the waste that produces landfill gas. This may also lead to restructuring of municipal waste system to enhance the usage of landfill gas. Keywords: municipal solid waste, MSW, landfill gas, reciprocating internal combustion engines, microturbines, molten carbonate fuel cells, MCFCs, siloxanes, emissions, greenhouse gases.

The landfill gas activity of the IEA bioenergy agreement

Current research into the pattern of energy usage in South Africa reveals an extraordinarily heavy reliance on coal-fired electricity, a strategy that is not only unsustainable but which has resulted in serious air pollution problems. The paper argues that this development ought to be seen in the context of South Africa's harmful waste disposal policy. Some 85% of South Africa's municipal solid waste is landfilled, thereby generating a significant volume of landfill gas (LFG), which contains approximately 50% methane (CO3). As a 'greenhouse' gas, CO3 emissions carry serious implications for global warming in the Southern African region. The paper explores the use of LFG as a renewable energy source, and concludes that not only is LFG extraction for energy use technically feasible, but that it is economically feasible as well. By integrating LFG capture as an example of improved waste disposal policies into energy studies, it is possible to initiate a shift in South Africa's energy usage towards renewable energy technologies.

The European Union (EU) is hurrying towards a climate-neutral economy, which includes increasing the use of renewable resources, including wood for heating. This direction means that the use of wood is increasing every year in the EU and beyond. The by-product of this activity, biofuel ash, is correspondingly increasing, so its further use should be considered a long-term issue. Energy producers face the challenge of making the best use of ash and often landfill it, thus moving countries further away from the EU Directive target. EU Directive 1999/31/EC and the National Waste Management Plan 2021-2028 require the amount of municipal waste landfilled (% of municipal waste generated) in 2035 will not exceed 10%. Otherwise, EU countries may face significant penalties. The energy produced from renewable energy sources (RES) In 2019, the total consumption of renewable energy sources (RES) in Latvia was 75.5 petajoules (PJ), according to the Central Statistical Office (CSO). In the five years 2015-2019, RES consumption increased by 16.7%. The decrease in RES consumption in 2019 was driven by a decrease in hydropower (HPP) generation, due to lower rainfall than in 2018. The main types of RES in Latvia are fuel wood (firewood, wood residues, fuel wood chips, wood briquettes, and wood pellets) and hydropower. Since 2010, the use of wood fuels for heat supply in Latvia has been increasing rapidly. Increasing the consumption of domestic energy sources reduces energy dependence on imported energy sources from 63.9% in 2005 to 44.3% in 2018. Fuel wood accounts for 82% of RES energy consumption. The share of fuel wood in total RES consumption was 82% in 2019 (80.7% in 2018). Biogas (landfill gas, sewage sludge gas, other biogas) consumption in 2019 was 3.4 PJ, 7.3% less than in 2018 (3.6 PJ), with a decrease of 8.1% or 0.3 PJ over the five years. The study aims to help solve the problems of district heating companies by preventing waste generation and reducing the costs for companies in its disposal. In addition, it can reduce, albeit slightly, the tariffs of heating users for the heat supplied.