Pilot demonstration of clean technology for landfill gas recovery in India – A case study

Abstract

Landfills are the second fastest growing source of methane emissions in India. The potential for landfill gas (LFG) recovery from thousands of landfills in India has yet to be seasonally experimented. The current research assesses the energy recovery potential of a landfill site located in the capital city of India, in order to demonstrate the potential of clean technology implementation in solid waste sector. Pump test and pilot plant studies were performed to evaluate the same. Seasonal monitoring of LFG was done to determine the trends of LFG flow and composition. Monitored concentration under dynamic condition was observed to lie within a range of 19 to 50% v/v for CH4, 8 to 22% v/v for CO2 and 1 to 13% v/v for O2. Applied suction pressure varied from -4.1 to -25.4 mbar. Monitoring results were found to indicate that LFG recovery maximized at high suction levels. Maximum LFG flow was 22 m3/h and minimum LFG flow was 8 m3/h. Multiple regression models were developed based on the experimental studies. This work makes for a pioneering contribution in demonstrating the implementation of clean technology for LFG recovery in India. The developed models using pilot plant studies will be a critical resource for future feasibility studies regrading LFG to energy projects, given the high initial capital investment requirements and risks associated to these projects.