Analysis of an innovative process for landfill gas quality improvement

Low methane content landfill gas is not suitable for feeding engines and is generally flared. This type of landfill gas may be enriched by removing the inert carbon dioxide. An innovative process, based on the carbon dioxide captured by means of accelerated carbonation of bottom ash was proposed and studied for the above purpose. The process was investigated at a laboratory scale, simulating different landfill gas compositions. The enrichment process is able to decrease the carbon dioxide concentration from 70 to 80% in volume to 60% in volume, requiring about 36 kg of bottom ash per Nm3 of landfill gas. Using this result it was estimated that an industrial scale plant, processing 100-1000 Nm3/h of low methane content landfill gas requires about 28,760-2,87,600 t of bottom ash for a one year operation. The specific cost of the studied enrichment process was evaluated as well and ranges from 0.052 to 0.241 Euro per Nm3 of entering landfill gas. The energy balance showed that about 4-6% of the energy entered with the landfill gas is required for carrying out the enrichment, while the use of the enriched landfill gas in the engine producing electricity allows for negative carbon dioxide emission.