Estimativa da produção de metano no aterro sanitário municipal oeste de Caucaia utilizando diferentes metodologias propostas

Abstract

Methane is one of the main gases generated inside a landfill and several factors influence its production. In the case of a gas with a high calorific value and being a great source of energy, in addition to the possible environmental impacts that it may cause because it is a potentiator of the greenhouse effect, it is important to know the potential of methane production inside a landfill. Based on this, this work aims to estimate, through different methodologies, the production of methane in the Metropolitan Landfill West of Caucaia (ASMOC) in the period from 1992 to 2009, comparing the results obtained, in addition to assigning adequate values for the generation rate methane and the potential for methane generation in each case. The methods used to estimate methane production were from the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), USEPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency) and the World Bank. In the study it was observed that the estimates obtained by the different methods are strongly influenced by two variables: the methane generation rate (k) and the methane generation potential (L0), and the parameters that influence the choice of these variables depend on the model in question. The USEPA model generated higher volumes of methane, obtaining 553,209,626.34 m³ of CH 4 , higher than the other models, with the IPCC model having volumes of 288,059,165.64 m³ of CH 4 , and the World Bank Model generated 131,631,928.2 m³ of CCH 4 . Among the three models, the IPCC is the one that uses the most input data to estimate methane generation, which can generate more reliable results. The results obtained in the present study indicated that there are significant variations in the methane volumes estimated by the different methods and that the choice of the most appropriate method will depend on the purpose of the work.