What is the best scenario to utilize landfill gas? Quantitative and qualitative approaches for technical, economic, and environmental feasibility. Issue 15 (13th July 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Byun, Manhee; Kim, Heehyang; Lee, Aejin; Cheon, Seunghyun; Gu, Jiwon; Lim, Hankwon
• Is Part Of: Green chemistry. Volume 24:Issue 15(2022)
• Page Start: 5869
• Page End: 5893
• Publication Date: 2022-07-13
• Subjects: Environmental chemistry -- Industrial applications -- Periodicals; Environmental management -- Periodicals; 660
• DOI: 10.1039/d2gc01108e
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1463-9262

Abstract

Abstract : The feasibility study in technical, economic, and environmental aspects was performed for various landfill gas utilization scenarios: Hydrogen, electricity, methanol, formic acid, and dimethyl ether production. Abstract : To overcome the globally increasing trend in the generation of landfill gas (LFG), an environmentally harmful waste, which is derived from the huge amount of municipal solid waste, various investigations into the utilization of LFG have been actively conducted. In this study, an extensive investigation of the technical, economic, and environmental aspects for several scenarios of LFG utilization, in which LFG streams with different levels of CO2 capture (HG, MG, and LG) are utilized in the production of H2 (HG-H2, MG-H2, and LG-H2 ), electricity (HG-E, MG-E, and LG-E), and the valuable materials methanol (MeOH) (HG-MeOH and MG-MeOH), dimethyl ether (DME) (HG-DME and MG-DME), and formic acid (FA) (HG-FA and MG-FA), is presented. All the investigated scenarios are simulated using Aspen Plus ®, and the derived results are used in an itemized cost estimation to evaluate the process cost of each scenario. Profitability analysis reveals net present values of 24.9 and 18.4 M$ for HG-H2 and HG-FA, and the subsequent scenario analysis indicates the significant effect of H2 and product selling prices on economic feasibility. In addition, significant annualized CO2 emissions of 21 589 tonCO2 years −1 are obtained for MG-MeOH using integrative carbon footprint analysis, whereas LG-E exhibits the lowest emissions of 2610 tonCO2 per years. Based on quantitative and qualitative analysis of the comprehensive feasibility of each scenario, the great potential of MG-FA to be a versatile utilization route and the environmental benefits of the LG-based utilization scenario are presented.