Methane Generation Rate Constant in Tropical Landfill

Abstract

This paper presents a practical methodology for quantifying the methane generation rate constant from four tropical sanitary landfills in Thailand. We used combination of static chamber and laser methane detection methods as well as geo-statistics to assess the total methane emission at each study site. After fitting of the estimated rate of methane emission per weight of waste deposited at the disposal sites with different age to the first order decay equation, it was found that the first order reaction rates were 0.33 yr-1. This high reaction rate as compared to previous studies in developed countries is probably due to the high moisture content of the waste in which food waste was the main component (>60%) combined with a tropical climate which has high precipitation and temperatures. These factors could stimulate anaerobic degradation and produce more biogas in a shorter time after the wastes has been disposed. In order to improve the estimation of methane emission from solid waste disposal sites in a tropical climate, this first order reaction rates can be considered as a country or region specific default value.