Landfill Gas Collection Efficiency at One Municipal Solid Waste Landfill in Northern China

Collection efficiency is a key indicator for the design and evaluation of municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill gas (LFG) collection and utilization system. Although most Chinese sanitary landfills have been equipped with LFG collection systems, there are no accurate data on collection efficiencies, lack of which always result in huge loss of LFG or investment. The fates of methane generated in a landfill include collection through LFG pipes, fugitive emission from the surface, and oxidation by methanotrophs. Field campaigns for measuring methane emission and oxidation were conducted at one landfill located in Beijing. Methane samples were collected by means of static flux chambers. The measurements were carried out at soil covered road and operating and slope surfaces. Two methods, i.e. landGEM model based and field measurement based estimation were used for calculating the collection efficiency in this research. The methane emission amount were 262.1 and 53222.4 m3 in July 2013 for the working and slope surfaces, respectively. The collection efficiency was 94.3% according to field measurement. Calculated with the LandGEM model, the collection efficiencies for 2011 and 2012 were 48.5 and 47.7% (k=0.09 yr-1) and 20.9 and 22.2% (k=0.3 yr-1), respectively. The estimation based on field measurement was more credible than the other, although the lateral migration and the storage insitu were naglected. The model method did not perform well probably due to the inapplicability of the landGEM model on this landfill, where the MSW was packed into small-subcells, and inaccurate parameter, k.

[1]  Morton A. Barlaz,et al.  Evaluation of Landfill Gas Decay Constant for Municipal Solid Waste Landfills Operated as Bioreactors , 2010, Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association.

[2]  A. Alexander,et al.  Landfill Gas Emissions Model (LandGEM) Version 3.02 User's Guide , 2005 .

[3]  Jin Feng,et al.  Impact of using high-density polyethylene geomembrane layer as landfill intermediate cover on landfill gas extraction. , 2011, Waste management.

[4]  J. Bogner,et al.  Methane mass balance at three landfill sites: what is the efficiency of capture by gas collection systems? , 2006, Waste management.

[5]  Fabio Tatàno,et al.  Effects of a temporary HDPE cover on landfill gas emissions: multiyear evaluation with the static chamber approach at an Italian landfill. , 2011, Waste management.

[6]  Jitendra Pandey,et al.  Methane emission estimation from landfills in Delhi: A comparative assessment of different methodologies , 2011 .

[7]  Morton A Barlaz,et al.  Controls on Landfill Gas Collection Efficiency: Instantaneous and Lifetime Performance , 2009, Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association.

[8]  Debra R. Reinhart,et al.  Flux Chamber Design and Operation for the Measurement of Municipal Solid Waste Landfill Gas Emission Rates , 1992 .

[9]  T Abichou,et al.  Improved field methods to quantify methane oxidation in landfill cover materials using stable carbon isotopes. , 2008, Environmental science & technology.

[10]  Kevin R Mackie,et al.  Determination of first-order landfill gas modeling parameters and uncertainties. , 2012, Waste management.

[11]  S Towprayoon,et al.  Mitigation of methane and nitrous oxide emissions from drained irrigated rice fields. , 2005, Chemosphere.

[12]  M. Barlaz,et al.  Observations on the methane oxidation capacity of landfill soils. , 2011, Waste management.

[13]  J. Barry McManus,et al.  Methane Emissions at Nine Landfill Sites in the Northeastern United States , 1999 .

[14]  K. Cen,et al.  A steam dried municipal solid waste gasification and melting process , 2011 .

[15]  N. Zhang,et al.  Modified landfill gas generation rate model of first-order kinetics and two-stage reaction , 2009 .

[16]  M. Barlaz,et al.  Biodegradability of Municipal Solid Waste Components in Laboratory-Scale Landfills , 1997 .

[17]  Pinjing He,et al.  Methane emissions from MSW landfill with sandy soil covers under leachate recirculation and subsurface irrigation , 2008 .

[18]  Jean E. Bogner,et al.  Landfill CH4: Rates, fates, and role in global carbon cycle , 1993 .