Keywords: greenhouse gases, GHG emissions, global warming, landfill gases, LFG, municipal solid waste, MSW, solid oxide fuel cells, SOFC, carbon dioxide, flaring, electricity generation, internal combustion engines, gas turbines, cogeneration
The reduction of greenhouse gas emissions using various thermal systems in a landfill site
In this paper, the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions from an uncontrolled landfill site filled with Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) are compared with those from controlled sites in which collected Landfill Gases (LFG) are utilised by various technologies. These technologies include flaring, conventional electricity generation technologies such as Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) and Gas Turbine (GT) and an emerging technology, Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC). The results show that SOFC is the best option for reducing the GHG emissions among the studied technologies. In the case when SOFC is used, GHG emissions from the controlled site are reduced by 63% compared to the uncontrolled site. This case has a specific lifetime GHG emission of 2.38 tonnes CO2 .eq/MWh when only electricity is produced and 1.12 tonnes CO2.eq/MWh for a cogeneration application.