Estimation of Methane Emissions and BioEnergy Recovery Potential from a Sanitary Landfill Using FOD, DM and LandGEM models

Abstract

Population growth and industrial progress have led to high rates of municipal solid waste generation. One of the main reasons of the high emission concentrations of greenhouse gases is the unscientific disposal of waste, which negatively affects the environment and health. Waste-to-energy (WTE) technologies are one of the best options to meet rising global energy demand and solve the growing waste problem. The landfill is one of the common WTE technologies where waste is buried and landfilled in layers inside engineered geomembrane. This paper aims to design an experimental landfill model and predict the bio-energy recovery potential of domestic solid waste based on the expected methane emissions from this landfill using first-order decay (FOD), default method (DM) and landfill gas emission method (LandGEM) models for the years from 2020 to 2030. The results showed that the cumulative methane emissions from the sanitary landfill from 2020 to 2030 were 0.1734, 3.5574 and 4.6299 Mg/year for FOD, DM and LandGEM models, respectively. It was also found that the cumulative values of the potential bioenergy recovery were 5.56 GJ, 113.9 GJ, 148.4 GJ for FOD, DM and LandGEM models, respectively, while the cumulative values of the equivalent electricity are 463.2 MWh, 9498.7 MWh and 12362.8 MWh, for the same order. These results reinforce the idea of that the efficient use of methane gas from landfills as an energy source is a sustainable waste management option, which solves the waste crisis problem and covers the growing energy demand at the same time.