Abstract:

Classical sanitary landfills release large amounts of hazardous and deleterious chemicals to nearby groundwater and air via landfill leachate and landfill gas (LFG). LFG which generated by municipal solid waste (MSW) in landfills brings much trouble to environmental pollution problem. LFG contains important greenhouse gases, such as methane (CH4), carbon dioxide (CO2); and LFG is a main environmental pollutant; landfill gas is also a clean renewable resource and energy; recovering and utilizing LFG can bring economics, environment safety, energy, and resources benefits. The utilization of LFG is concerned on the utilization of methane in LFG; then the calculation method of methane emission from landfills is introduced and interpreted briefly. The methane emission of China from landfills is calculated by first order decay method; the range of methane resources quantity in landfill gas is obtained. Based on clean development mechanism and the actual LFG utilization situation in China, utilization methods to address the emission of landfill gas are analyzed; the situation and the problem faced by LFG utilization in China are analyzed; and the advices and results are given. Those results and advices may be helpful to the recovery and utilization of landfill gas.

Key words: landfill gas, resources quantity, greenhouse effect, methane utilization