4 research outputs found
Comparison of Field Measurements to Methane Emissions Models at a New Landfill
Estimates
of methane emissions from landfills rely primarily on
models due to both technical and economic limitations. 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); and (4) Solid Waste Industry for Climate Solutions (SWICS),
with measured emissions data collected over three 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 4–31. 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