Quantification of methane emissions from 15 Danish landfills using the mobile tracer dispersion method
Journal article, 2015

Whole-site methane emissions from 15 Danish landfills were assessed using a mobile tracer dispersion method with either Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), using nitrous oxide as a tracer gas, or cavity ring-down spectrometry (CRDS), using acetylene as a tracer gas. The landfills were chosen to represent the different stages of the lifetime of a landfill, including open, active, and closed covered landfills, as well as those with and without gas extraction for utilisation or flaring. Measurements also included landfills with biocover for oxidizing any fugitive methane. Methane emission rates ranged from 2.6 to 60.8kgh -1 , corresponding to 0.7-13.2gm -2 d -1 , with the largest emission rates per area coming from landfills with malfunctioning gas extraction systems installed, and the smallest emission rates from landfills closed decades ago and landfills with an engineered biocover installed. Landfills with gas collection and recovery systems had a recovery efficiency of 41-81%. Landfills where shredder waste was deposited showed significant methane emissions, with the largest emission from newly deposited shredder waste. The average methane emission from the landfills was 154tonsy -1 . This average was obtained from a few measurement campaigns conducted at each of the 15 landfills and extrapolating to annual emissions requires more measurements. Assuming that these landfills are representative of the average Danish landfill, the total emission from Danish landfills were calculated at 20,600tonsy -1 , which is significantly lower than the 33,300tonsy -1 estimated for the national greenhouse gas inventory for 2011.

Shredder waste

Methane emission

Gas collection efficiency

Greenhouse gas inventory

Author

Jacob Mönster

Technical University of Denmark (DTU)

Jerker Samuelsson

FluxSense AB

Chalmers, Earth and Space Sciences

P. Kjeldsen

Technical University of Denmark (DTU)

Charlotte Scheutz

Technical University of Denmark (DTU)

Waste Management

0956-053X (ISSN) 1879-2456 (eISSN)

Vol. 35 177-186

Subject Categories

Other Environmental Engineering

Bioenergy

Environmental Sciences

DOI

10.1016/j.wasman.2014.09.006

PubMed

25442105

More information

Latest update

11/25/2022