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The importance of Collecting and Burning Landfill Gas to reduce Global Warming - By: Steve Last
By Steve Last
Climate change is one of the most serious environmental threats.
At the end of 2005 the United Kingdom's Hadley Centre announced results of climate modeling which were described as finally demonstrating beyond doubt that the generally rising average global temperatures seen during the 20th century and continuing in the first five years of the 21st, are caused by human activities.
In fact, they summarized the continuing trend through 2005 as follows:-
"2005 has been the warmest year on record for the northern hemisphere. The end of November saw mean sea and land temperature 0.65 C above the long-term average, while temperatures in the southern hemisphere were found to be the fourth warmest on record. The statistics continue the recent trend of increasing global temperatures, which have seen the ten warmest years all occurring in the last 11 years and follow various climate change forecasts. "These figures show that global warming is continuing and are consistent with what we expect to occur from our research into greenhouse gas emissions" - commented Adam Scaife, a Climate Variability scientist at the Met Office Hadley Centre. In the UK, the Central England Temperature (CET) for 2005 was 1.07 C above normal and within the top ten warmest years ever." Ref: UK Meteorological Office, Hadley Centre and the University of East Anglia.
There is no doubt that the threat to our environment is real, and that we must act to limit the damage, and that there will be great economic and social damage as well.
Many governments have ratified the Kyoto Protocol, the purpose of which is to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and to begin to limit the greenhouse severity of the effect.
The many signatory nations are committed to reducing GHG emissions to the level of 1990, and collectively a reduction in 5.2% has been agreed by 2012. It has taken until 2005 for the negotiations to be completed, but now in early 2006 the agreements are in-place, and there has been 9 months of Emissions Trading.
This means that a lot of uncertainties have been removed, and we can begin to look at the methods which can now be adopted to bring those benefits which can be achieved by Kyoto into reality.
Make no mistake about it. There is a huge task ahead. GHG emissions monitored in the form of global Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions have continued rising inexorably since 1990, and in 2003, global emissions were about 15 million tonnes greater than in 1990 [1].
According to forecasts of authorities, the amount of GHG emissions will continue to grow in most nations, and additional measures will be necessary to achieve the reversion to 1990 levels.
In many EU Countries, and other developed countries, various fiscal measures have already implemented. There are many further financially reasonable measures to save energy and to improve energy efficiency, which are being progressively implemented in the Kyoto member states.
However, the demands of society continue toward greater affluence and energy use, even in the developed Kyoto signatory countries energy use continues to rise, despite the 20% increase in energy costs experienced in 2005, throughout Europe and globally.
So, it appears that for most nations, still more actions are going to be needed to reach the existing emission reduction target, let alone to provide means by which, beyond 2012, we can reduce CO2 levels still further.
Let is not forget that after 2012 it will be necessary to maintain or reduce the 1990 level globally, not let it rise further; not easy given the above average rate of energy demand from the developing nations.
We have mentioned already what each developed Kyoto nation can, and will, be doing at home. Another way to reduce national CO2 is purchasing Assigned Amount Units (AAU) which are the CO2 equivalent units owned by states which participate in the emission trade mechanism of the Kyoto protocol ("Carbon Credits" system). So, purchase of Carbon Credits is now possible for the developed nations, from the developing nations.
THE IMPORTANCE OF METHANE AND LANDFILL GAS IN CLIMATE CHANGE
Now let's for a while forget about the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) CO2, which we have discussed so far, and think about another gas: methane.
Why methane? Well we should consider methane, because it has a global warming effect about 23 times stronger than carbon dioxide (CO2) [2].
It has only been fully appreciated within the past 10 years that methane so significant to global warming, and one place in which large quantities of methane are being produced by human activity is within landfills. Landfill gas from any modern landfill which was built to comply with EU regulations, and all others worldwide built to similar principles within the past 20 to 25 years, will usually produce an LFG containing between 40% and 60% of methane.
Therefore, landfills have a major potential to produce a significant GHG impact, indeed the UK DEFRA has put the UK's landfill gas contrbution at between 17% and 25% of total GHG emissions.
Landfills without a landfill gas collection system, which vent freely to the atmosphere, therefore have a significant and rising influence on the greenhouse effect. Indeed, even for landfills with an effective capping and a gas extraction system installed, the proportion of the total CH4 it will collect may be no more than 50%, of the total produced over the lifetime of the landfill.
The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Joint Implementation (JI) created by the Kyoto Protocol are project based emission reduction systems and operate under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). These mechanisms make it possible to launch LFG utilization projects for example in ANNEX I countries and purchase Emission Reduction Units (ERU) which are the CO2 equivalent units.
So, we have established that one very potent GHG is landfill gas (LFG), due to its high methane (CH4) content. If say, on average, the LFG emitted from a landfill site comprises half methane and half other gases, by preventing one unit of LFG emission we will save about ten times the equivalent weight in CO2.
Torch burning (burning in a flare) decreases CH4 emissions by about 95%, and emissions can be reduced even more with energy utilization.
Comparisons between GHG emissions with and without LFG flaring, and with the addition of the necessary infrastructure and generation equipment to produce power have been carried out using Life Cycle Assessment methods.
These studies have also examined the financial profitability of LFG utilization projects with different CO2 emission costs. In both instances very big reductions in GHG emissions can be achieved, but the balance becomes especially favourable when the CO2 emissions saved by replacing power which would have otherwise been generated by non-renewable (usually fossil, fuels) are considered. Profitability for most schemes has also been reported to be good under current market values for the Carbon Credits allocated.
Methane is a relatively clean fuel and its use produces far less sulfur dioxide than burning coal. So substituting LFG utilization energy for fossil fuels generated energy, also reduces other emissions in most cases.
In the United Kingdom, in common with many other EU countries, most of our landfills (and all of the large emitting landfills) already have landfill gas collection and flaring systems installed as required by our Environment Agency. This means that the most likely manner in which countries like the UK can encourage and make use of the provision of landfill Energy from Waste (EfW) will be by emission trading between the developed and the developing nations, as set up by the Kyoto agreement.
EMISSION TRADING
In 1992 the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was accepted. It defined the framework for international climate policy and 188 countries have ratified it. The Framework came into force in 1994 for all the nations which were then signatories. The main goal of the Framework is to begin to tackle the challenges posed by climate change. On 11th December 1997, a number of governments first adopted the Kyoto Protocol, which sets legally binding limits to GHG emissions in industrial countries, and Emissions Trading has been an integral part of the protocol throughout.
The EU has drawn up a scheme for GHG emission allowance trading, and this is implemented at company level within industry. An "allowance" means an allowance to emit one tonne of carbon dioxide, or an equivalent in methane, during a specified period [4].
Every EU member state has its own emission level reduction target and the competent authorities of the member states grant the allowances to companies. EU emission trading is extended beyond the EU by The Clean Development Mechanism and Joint Implementation.
Price of Allowances in the EU Market
Emission trading takes place between companies. Any company is able to buy more allowances if they need more GHG emission permits than they already have. The price of emission allowances is just like any traded commodity and rises and falls under market forces of supply and demand.
Before GHG emission permits had been granted, forecasts for allowance prices varied typically between 5 and 15 Euro/tonne CO2. In early 2005 the allowance price was 7.5 Euro/tonne CO2 [5]. After that the price started to rise and in July 2005 it had risen to 28 Euro/tonne CO2 [5]. In October 2005 the price reduced again to 23 Euro/tonne CO2 [6]. The very high price which held through this autumn surprised industry, and for many companies it meant additional expenses. However, such a high price is very good news for LFG Energy from Waste (EfW) scheme profitability.
It is very difficult to forecast the allowance price, because there are many factors which have an effect on it. Prices could rise or fall, but most schemes underway and planned were based upon the early price forecasts, and now look very profitable.
Financial analysts have generally forecast that the prices of EU Allowances could be between 5 and 50 Euro/tonne CO2, a very wide range. At the moment early January 2006, a stable price band appears to have been reached in the range 20 and 25 Euro/tonne CO2 [6]. (Any potential investor must look at the evidence and gain his/her own view.)
Many governments are concerned about climate change because it is now known to be caused by human activty and a serious environmental threat.
Emission trading, in which CO2 Allocations are purchased from LFG Flaring and EfW Schemes in the developing nations is one very environmentally and economically and socially sound method for reducing GHG emissions and fighting Climate Change.
[1] National Inventory Report to the UNFCCC, 2005.. [2] IPPCa. Climate Change 2001. IPPC Third Assessment Report. [3] Niskanen, Et al; Utilization of Landfill Gas, Kalmar ECO-TECH '05 and The 2nd Baltic Symposium on Environmental Chemistry, KALMAR, SWEDEN, 2005 [4] Directive 2003/87/EC. ..Greenhouse gas emission allowance trading. [5] GreenStreamn Network. 2005. ETR 12.10.2005. 6] European Emissions Trading 2/12/2005, http://www.enviros.com
About the Author
Visit our web sites http://www.landfill-gas.com and www.climate-change.me.uk
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