Get US EPA - Guidance For Evaluating Landfill Gas Emissions From Closed Or Abandoned Facilities

Combustion. Combustion is the most common technique for controlling and treating landfill gas. Combustion technologies such as flares, incinerators, boilers, gas turbines, and internal combustion engines thermally destroy the compounds in landfill gas. Over 98% destruction of organic compounds is typically achieved.

Which landfills are required to report greenhouse gas emissions data to EPA? MSW landfills and industrial landfills are required to report data under EPA's Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP) if annual methane generation is greater than or equal to 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2e).

The portable instrument is used to locate "hot spots," places in the landfill surface where relatively high concentrations of methane are detected.

Landfills cannot be built in environmentally-sensitive areas, and they are placed using on-site environmental monitoring systems. These monitoring systems check for any sign of groundwater contamination and for landfill gas, as well as provide additional safeguards.

Gas probes, also known as perimeter or migration probes, are used for subsurface monitoring and detect gas concentrations in the local environment around the probe. Sometimes multiple probes are used at different depths at a single point. Probes typically form a ring around a landfill.

Methane Emissions from Landfills The methane emissions from MSW landfills in 2020 were approximately equivalent to the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from about 20.3 million passenger vehicles driven for one year or the CO2 emissions from nearly 11.9 million homes' energy use for one year.

When a section of the landfill is finished, it is covered permanently with a polyethylene cap (40 mil). The cap is then covered with a 2-foot layer of compacted soil. The soil is then planted with vegetation to prevent erosion of the soil by rainfall and wind.

In eddy covariance, the concentration of methane is measured using an infrared laser at multiple elevations above the landfill surface while collocated meteorology data are collected. The measurements are used to calculate the methane emission rate from the source.