Characterization of trace constituents in landfill gas and a comparison of sites in Asia

Abstract

Because landfi ll gas (LFG) contains an abundance of methane, the utilization of LFG as a renewable energy source is becoming popular in many countries. LFG, however, contains various trace constituents, some of which may pose problems during utilization. For example, siloxanes and halogenated volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can cause diffi culties when present in the fuel of gas engines. In addition, many VOCs and mercury have harmful effects on human health, especially on the health of workers at landfi ll sites and people living near the landfi lls. Energy recovery from LFG is expected to make great progress in the near future, particularly in Asia, but we found little information on the trace constituents of LFG in this region. Therefore, we sought to characterize the trace components in LFG generated in two landfi ll sites in China and one site in Japan, to determine the typical concentrations of these trace components in LFG, and to compare their concentrations among landfi ll sites in Asia. We concluded that the trace components in LFG at the sites studied were mainly siloxanes generated from sewage sludge and harmful benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene compounds from petroleum products.

Biofiltration of methane and trace gases from landfills: A review

“…The concentrations reported are generally lower than those of aromatic compounds, around 4 mg·m -3 for gas extraction systems (Takuwa et al 2009) and from 0.5 to 17 µg·m -3 for ambient air (Davoli et al 2003;Zou et al 2003;Dincer et al 2006). The presence of chlorinated organic compounds might be relative to the use of solvents such as cleaners and disinfectants from urban and industrial sources (Dincer et al 2006).…”

“…These trace compounds include, from µg·m -3 to mg·m -3 levels, alkanes, aromatics, chlorinated aliphatic hydrocarbons, alcohols, ketones, terpenes, chlorofluorocarbons, and siloxanes (Staley et al 2006;Chiriac et al 2007;Scheutz et al 2008). The concentration of trace compounds is shown in Table 1 when the biogas was sampled from pipes and (or) wells (Allen et al 1997;Schweigkofler and Niessner 1999;Takuwa et al 2009) and from ambient air above the landfills (Zou et al 2003;Davoli et al 2003;Dincer et al 2006;Chiriac et al 2007;Scheutz et al 2008). The second category presents lower values in terms of concentration due to the dilution of the gas in ambient air.…”

“…As the majority of the alkanes and the aromatic compounds are produced during the waste decomposition process, their predominance in landfill biogas is an indicator of older refuse (Allen et al 1997;Davoli et al 2003;Zou et al 2003). Toluene, with concentrations ranging from 7-211 mg·m -3 in gas extraction systems (Schweigkofler and Niessner 1999;Takuwa et al 2009) and 7·10 -3 -2471 µg·m -3 in air ambient, is one of the predominant aromatic VOCs present in landfill biogas (Kim et al 2006;Chiriac et al 2007). …”

Chemical Mass Balance Model Applied to an Olfactory Annoyance Problematic

“…In the literature, the amount of aromatic hydrocarbons (including BTEX) are generally equal or greater than to the quantities of aliphatic hydrocarbons, 10,32−38 but in all these studies, samples were taken by adsorbent cartridges and/or SPME, which is a very bad trap for the lighter aliphatic hydrocarbons. Finally, three independent studies on the chemical characterization of "biogas" source conclude that in addition to methane, carbon dioxide and water vapor, which constitute most of biogas, the major compounds are aromatic hydrocarbons, aliphatic hydrocarbons, and terpenes, 20,39,40 what is relevant to our own results.…”

A Bioreactor for the Effective Removal of the Hydrogen Sulfide from Biogas

“…이와 함께 천연자원 고갈에 따른 재생에너지 개발의 필요성이 요구되고 있으며, 바이오가스에 포함 된 메탄에 대한 재이용과 자원화가 중요한 과제로 대 두되었다 (Kim et al, 2012;Nizami and Murphy, 2010). (Takuwa et al, 2009;Kim et al, 2007;Lee et al, 2003).…”