Greenhouse effect reduction by recovering energy from waste landfills in Pakistan

2015-04-01
Zuberi, M. Jibran S.
Ali, Shazia F.
Landfills all around the world are one of the major sources that contribute towards global warming and climate change. Although landfilling should be prioritized last in the waste management hierarchy due to highest greenhouse gas emissions as compared to other waste management systems it is still very common around the world. In this study, methane emissions are estimated by applying First Order Decay model to landfills in Pakistan over the latest data available by Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency. Results demonstrate that nearly 14.18 Gg of methane is emitted from the landfills in Pakistan each year. By combusting this methane in the form of biogas collected from the landfills as a waste management scheme we can reduce greenhouse effect up to similar to 88%. Same percentage is observed when we apply the similar analysis over the potentially improved practice. Also, Pakistan is facing severe economic crises due to continuous increasing gap between energy demand and supply. Demand is increasing exponentially while supply is observed to remain constant over the last few years due to frozen capacity in spite of having significant renewable/alternate energy resources. Current electricity shortfall has reached up to 6000 MW. Present operational landfills in Pakistan can only contribute up to similar to 0.1% to cater the total deficit which does not make any significant difference but if 75% of the total waste generated today is collected and 50% of it landfilled then Pakistan has the potential to produce similar to 83.17 MW of power that can contribute up to 1.4% to overcome the current power shortage. The outcomes of this paper may also be applicable to other developing countries having similar resources.

Suggestions

Sustainable carbon constrained energy generation perspectives: Dataset
Çubukçu, Nilay; Tarı, İlker (2021-12-7)
There is a consensus that climate change, which is about to become a major disaster for humankind, is largely due to anthropogenic activities. Greenhouse gases (dominated by CO2) emissions play a dominant role there. Majority of the emissions results from energy consumption. Today, mitigating CO2 emissions consists one of the fundamental missions of the humankind. One such task is to reduce the global energy demand. Enhancing efficiency, recycling, promoting behavioral changes to reduce energy demandi...
Geochemical modeling of CO2-water-rock interaction in indonesian geothermal fields for a possible future carbon capture and storage project
Utomo, Gagas Pambudi; Yılmaz, Koray K.; Department of Geological Engineering (2019)
The rise of CO2 concentration in Earth’s atmosphere from anthropogenic emissions is the main cause of global warming and climate change. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is considered as an effective method to reduce such emission. CCS can be performed in various sites including geothermal reservoirs. This study is concerned with geochemical modeling of CO2-water-rock interaction for a possible future CCS project in Indonesian geothermal fields, namely Ungaran, Baturaden, Dieng and Awibengkok. The modeling ...
Geochemical characterization of geothermal systems in Turkey as natural analogues for geological storage of Co2/
Elidemir, Sanem; Güleç, Nilgün Türkan; Department of Geological Engineering (2014)
To mitigate the unfavourable effect of CO2 emission on global warming and climate change, geological storage of CO2 is currently regarded to be one of the major strategies. Deep saline formations constitute one of the alternative reservoirs for hosting the injected CO2 and the information about the behaviour of these reservoirs is provided via the studies of natural analogues. This thesis is concerned with the geothermal systems of Turkey as natural analogues for CO2 storage sites and the evaluation of thei...
Emission reductions and future of energy policies in Turkey. are renewables an alternative?
Önenli, Özge; Ercan, Hakan; Kat, Bora; Department of Earth System Science (2019)
Climate change is considered one of the greatest threats that the world has ever faced. Human activities are the main cause of the excessive greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere. GHGs created by the anthropogenic effects are far greater than the naturally present portions in the atmosphere and in charge of the alteration in the composition of the atmosphere. Which human activity is responsible for global warming? The main contributor of the GHGs is the energy sector on which human activities are deeply...
Evaluating maritime intelligent transportation systems: The case of using electric ferries and renewable energy in Türkiye
Pense, Caner; Akınoğlu, Bülent Gültekin; Atik, Oğuz; Department of Earth System Science (2022-10-26)
Climate Change and Global Warming are among the most critical global problems today. Their effects can be seen all over the world. The maritime sector contributes to global Climate Change and Global Warming with greenhouse gas emissions from coastal structures and ships. At the local level, it also negatively affects all life with environmental pollution, especially air and sea. Today, drive technologies are developing at a dizzying speed. In land transportation, electric vehicles are frequently seen. Elect...
Citation Formats
M. J. S. Zuberi and S. F. Ali, “Greenhouse effect reduction by recovering energy from waste landfills in Pakistan,” 2015. Accessed: 00, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/65336.