Emission and neutralization of methane from a municipal landfill-parametric analysis

Abstract

An attempt was made to estimate the annual production ofCH4 at a municipal waste landfill site in Poland. As a matter of fact, the extent of the unorganized emission of CH4 from the landfill surface was approached based on the adopted mathematical model. TheWard agglomeration method for cluster analysis and the Pearson coeffcient were employed to evaluate the distance-based similarity measure and to optimize methods for estimating methane emissions from a landfill as well as to verify the input parameters for the model. In order to calculate the content of biodegradable organic parts in the waste, morphological tests of the landfilled waste were performed. Physical quantities, measurements and the actual amount of the landfilled waste as well as the volume of CH4 neutralized in a collective flare were implemented in the model, respectively. The model-based findings and experimental outcome demonstrated stable gas production in the landfill with a high CH4 content. On the other hand, a rather low effciency of the landfill passive degassing installation indicated the necessity to design and develop its active counterpart with the prospective application of the generated biogas for energy production in a cogeneration system.