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Comparison of Field Measurements to Methane Emissions Models at a New Landfill
Citation:
De la Cruz, F., R. Green, G. Hater, J. Chanton, E. Thoma, T. Harvey, AND M. Barlaz. Comparison of Field Measurements to Methane Emissions Models at a New Landfill. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY. American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, 50(17):9483-9441, (2016).
Impact/Purpose:
This is a submission to a peer reviewed journal. The paper discusses landfill emission measurements and models for a new landfill. The models overestimate emissions for this case. The need for additional research is stressed. This paper was reviewed by OAR OAQPS and OAR OAP and a briefing was conducted to communicate results internally.
Description:
Due to both technical and economic limitations, estimates of methane emissions from landfills rely primarily on models. While models are easy to implement, there is uncertainty due to the use of parameters that are difficult to validate. The objective of this research was to compare modeled emissions using several greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reporting protocols including: (1) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC); (2) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (EPA GHGRP); (3) California Air Resources Board (CARB); (4) Solid Waste Industry for Climate Solutions (SWICS); and (5) an industry model from the Dutch waste company Afvalzorg, with measured data collected over 3 calendar years from a young landfill with no gas collection system. By working with whole landfill measurements of fugitive methane emissions and methane oxidation, the collection efficiency could be set to zero, thus eliminating one source of parameter uncertainty. The models consistently overestimated annual methane emissions by a factor ranging from 4 – 32.Varying input parameters over reasonable ranges reduced this range to 1.3 - 8. Waste age at the studied landfill was less than four years and the results suggest the need for measurements at additional landfills to evaluate the accuracy of the tested models to young landfills.
