The landfill gas activity of the IEA bioenergy agreement

Abstract

Landfill gas (LFG) is a renewable source of useful energy. Its world wide annual energy potential is in the range of a few hundred TWh. Today it is only marginally exploited. LFG is also an important contributor to the atmospheres CH 4-content, it can be estimated to contribute about 25% of the methane coming from anthropogenic sources. In comparison to many other sources of methane emissions such as peat bogs, rice paddies, termites and sheep, landfills can be considered to be point sources, i.e. they are stationary and of limited extension. For this reason landfill gas (LFG) utilisation is one of the most cost effective ways to combat the greenhouse effect. The aim of the IEA activity on LFG is to promote information exchange and co-operation between national programmes in order to promote the proliferation of landfill gas utilisation. During the period 1992–1994 the LFG activity has had six participating countries: Canada, Denmark, Norway, The Netherlands, Sweden, UK and USA. In the past three-year period, the activity has been mainly directed towards establishing networks and obtaining an over-view of data related to LFG in the member countries. Numerous contacts have been established and perhaps of most importance for the future of the activity are the links towards organisations involved in the development of landfill technology, such as ISWA and SWANA. The gathering and evaluation of data within the LFG area from the member countries has resulted in a number of documents that are to be published within the near future. These documents cover information on LFG utilisation, landfill research, landfill gas potentials, landfill emission assessment and also non-technical barriers to LFG utilisation.