Picture from a Landfill in Philippines. Credits:Guillermo Pomphile (2024)
Intro
Landfills are one of the largest emitters of methane into the atmosphere, yet one of the least invested in abatement. The golden years of the Kyoto Protocol and the Clean Development Mechanism, when credits were easily allocated between countries, are over, and new investors are reluctant because of a lack of clarity about the return on investment. Well-publicised cases of green-washing and fraud in the issuance of carbon credits have made matters worse. Today, the sector can only rely on national programmes or the sale of carbon credits on the voluntary market. The generation and certification of these credits is currently carried out by third party certification bodies and auditors in a manual way, with data being collected every six months, analysed and validated by an inspector before being certified. The whole process is bureaucratic, slow and inefficient. Typically, under the current system, an investor could wait up to five years to receive the first payment. A reliable, transparent, automated and scalable data collection and processing system could turn the tide and unlock much-needed investment in the sector.
This blog affords this topic.
Blog
Methane (CH₄) is a greenhouse gas (GHG) that, by mass, has approximately 25 times the global warming effect of carbon dioxide (CO₂) over a 100-year time horizon. This factor is known as the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of a gas. To account for different GHGs, emissions are commonly expressed in carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂eq), calculated by multiplying the mass of the gas emitted (in tonnes) by its GWP.
Currently, landfills worldwide contribute about 11% of anthropogenic methane emissions.
In developed countries, the average municipal solid waste (MSW) generation is approximately 1 kg per person per day. This means a city with 1 million inhabitants produces about 365,000 tonnes of MSW annually, which must be landfilled in the absence of incineration facilities.
Since 40–60% of MSW is biodegradable, it typically decomposes anaerobically, producing methane. Peak methane production usually occurs 2 to 3 years after waste deposition, resulting in approximately 5 million cubic meters (m³) of landfill gas per year.
To put this in perspective, the methane emissions (in CO₂eq) from such a landfill are comparable to the annual emissions of around 38,000 diesel cars in Europe, each driving an average of 10,000 kilometers per year.
A country like South Africa for example have more than 1000 oficial landfills registered and less than 20 have proper degassing systems installed.
….In Progress…
Links
EPA Overview of Greenhouse Gases
About Methane and landfill impact
Hofstetter: Climate Impact Calculator
«About the Autor»
Guillermo is a mechanical engineer working in providing environmental solutions with focus in landfill’s impact mitigation. With 12 years of experience at Hofstetter Gastechnik AG which core business is the manufacturing of systems to treat the two main contaminant effluents from landfills, the gas and the leachate.
Guillermo Pomphile attends the CAS Cloud Computing & Platform at HSLU
