Greenhouse gas emissions from municipal solid waste management in Indian mega-cities: A case study of Chennai landfill sites

Municipal solid waste generation rate is over-riding the population growth rate in all mega-cities in India. Greenhouse gas emission inventory from landfills of Chennai has been generated by measuring the site specific emission factors in conjunction with relevant activity data as well as using the IPCC methodologies for CH4 inventory preparation. In Chennai, emission flux ranged from 1.0 to 23.5 mg CH4 m−2 h−1, 6 to 460 μg N2O m−2 h−1 and 39 to 906 mg CO2 m2 h−1 at Kodungaiyur and 0.9 to 433 mg CH4 m−2 h−1, 2.7 to 1200 μg N2O m−2 h−1 and 12.3 to 964.4 mg CO2 m−2 h−1 at Perungudi. CH4 emission estimates were found to be about 0.12 Gg in Chennai from municipal solid waste management for the year 2000 which is lower than the value computed using IPCC, 1996 [IPCC, 1996. Report of the 12th session of the intergovernmental panel of climate change, Mexico City, 1996] methodologies.