CLEAR
IWWG Task Group on
Landfill Gas Emissions to the Atmosphere
Marion Huber-Humer / Peter Lechner
The CLEAR Task Group aims to coordinate interdisciplinary research on the quantification and mitigation of landfill gas emissions to the atmosphere. The Task Group emerged from a recognized need among participants at an IWWG-Workshop held in the context of the Second Intercontinental Landfill Research Symposium (ICLRS), in Asheville, North Carolina in October 2002, for a mechanism with which to coordinate international research on landfill gas emissions and oxidation.
The CLEAR Task Group includes approx. 30 academic and industrial researchers and scientists from Europe, the United States, Canada and Australia and is co-chaired by Peter Lechner and Marion Huber-Humer (e-mail: marion.huber-humer@boku.ac.at) from the Institute of Waste Management of BOKU University in Vienna, Austria.
The following is a complete list of members and their corresponding institutions:
• A. Akerman, CIRADE – Waste R&D department – SUEZ Environnement, France
• C. Aran, CREED–Organic Wastes Treatment R&D Department -Véolia Environnement, France
• M. Barlaz, Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering, North Carolina State University, USA
• J. Berger, Institute WAR, Chair of Waste Management, Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany
• J. Bogner, Landfills +, Inc. & Dept. Of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois, Chicago, USA
• G. Borjesson, Dept. of Water and Environmental Studies, Linkoeping University, Sweden
• A. Cabral, Dept. Civil Engineering, Université de Sherbrooke, Canada
• J. Chanton, Department of Oceanography, Florida State University, USA
• A. De Visscher, Department of Chemical & Petroleum Engineering, University of Calgary, Canada
• S. Dever, School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of the New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
• L. F. Diaz, CalRecovery, Inc., USA
• J. Einola, Department of Biological and Environmental Science, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
• M. Ettala, Kuopio University, and Matti Ettala Oy, Finland
• Ch. Felske, Solid Waste Management, Alberta Research Council – Edmonton, Canada
• J. Gebert, Institute of Soil Science, University of Hamburg, Germany
• P. Hettiaratchi, Department of Civil Engineering, Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary, Canada
• H. Hilger, Department of Civil Engineering, UNC-Charlotte, USA
• M. Huber-Humer, Inst. of Waste Management, BOKU-University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences Vienna, Austria
• T. Johnson, Waste Management Inc., Groundwater Protection Program, USA
• P. Kjeldsen, Environment & Resources DTU , Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
• P. Lechner, Inst. of Waste Management, BOKU-University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences Vienna, Austria
• K. Mahieu, Department of Applied Analytical and Physical Chemistry, Ghent University, Belgium
• Ch. Maurice, Div. of Landfill Science and Technology, Luleå University of Technology, Sweden
• J.S. McCartney, University of Colorado at Boulder, USA
• G.B. Pedersen, Environment & Resources DTU, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
• J. Samuelsson, Department of Radio and Space Science, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
• H. Scharff, Afvalzorg Deponie BV, Netherlands
• Ch. Scheutz, Environment & Resources DTU, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
• K. Spokas, US Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), USA
• W. Stepniewski, Inst. of Environmental Protection Engineering, Lublin University of Technology, Poland
• J. Streese, Institute of Waste Management, Hamburg University of Technology, Germany
• S.T.S. Yuen, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Melbourne, Australia
Member expertise encompasses a broad range of disciplines, including microbiology, soil science, chemistry, geochemistry, civil and environmental engineering, and waste management. Collectively, CLEAR members have many years of experience in the measurement and modeling of landfill gases at local, regional, and global scales.
Currently, the main focus of CLEAR is on the utilization of natural biological processes to reduce emissions of methane and non-methane organic compounds (NMOCs). A second focus is on improved methodologies to measure and model landfill gas emissions. Moreover, CLEAR manages a large database, currently being updated, of information and scientific results on methane emissions and oxidation.
The Task Group provides a forum for members to discuss and exchange ideas, generate hypotheses, and jointly consider and relate results and findings from diverse projects. By fostering international and interdisciplinary communication and pooling data, research advances can be accelerated, and future research requirements identified and synthesized more effectively. From the synergy fostered by CLEAR, more innovative and comprehensive approaches and strategies to measure, characterize, and mitigate landfill gas emissions will emerge.
As research efforts are coordinated and new results are generated, the Group serves as a clearinghouse and point of contact for those seeking information about measuring, modeling, and mitigating landfill gas emissions. Landfill operators, legislators, industry groups, and citizen groups are encouraged to access information through contact with CLEAR. Furthermore, collaborations from within the Group are published in international journals, so that ready access to information is available to the research community. Some of the research topics addressed by CLEAR members include:
• landfill gas generation and emissions
• control and mitigation strategies for LFG-emissions
• prediction and modeling on a regional, national and global basis
• contribution of landfill methane to the greenhouse effect and climate change
• microbial methane oxidation
• biodegradation of NMOCs in landfill cover soils
The current objectives of CLEAR include:
• Standardization of methods used to measure biotic methane oxidation capacity
• Fine-tuning isotope methods to measure methane oxidation
• Quantification and field validation of LFG-emissions and effects of diverse mitigation technologies
• Development and improvement of engineering systems to enhance methane oxidation in landfill cover soils
• Modeling of methane oxidation in landfill cover materials
• Biodegradation of NMOCs in landfill settings, including both aerobic cover soils and deeper anaerobic zones
CLEAR encourages and implements frequent scientific exchange through an email discussion platform (CH4ox@yahoogroups.com). To date, approximately 60 persons have subscribed to this list.
Annual workshops/meetings are convened to maintain personal contact among members, introduce new members to the Group, and to provide a forum for presentations and interactive group discussions. Since 2003 there have been 7 meetings, generally during the Sardinia or Intercontinental Landfill Research Symposium (ICLRS) events.
The next TG meeting is scheduled in the context of the ICLRS - Intercontinental Landfill Research Symposium ,which will be held in Hokkaido, Japan, from 9th to 12th June 2010.
More information can be found on the CLEAR website: http://ch4ox.lmem.us
Contact person:
Marion Huber-Humer, MSc, PhD
BOKU University Vienna
Institute of Waste Management
Muthgasse 107
A- 1190 Vienna, Austria
Phone: ++43 1 318 99 00
E-mail: abf(AT)boku.ac.at
NEWS
Following the Sardinia 2009 Symposium, during which the CLEAR (Consortium for Landfill Emissions Abatement Research) Task Group hosted the workshop session “Factors controlling methane emissions and oxidation" and held an administrative member meeting, the activities of the Task Group have focused on, among other topics, current progress in EU landfill legislation, in particular amendment of the EU landfill directive. The Task Group wrote a letter to the EU Commission, DG Environment (BU-5 5/183) expressing its support for the introduction of harmonised methane emission limit values in the European landfill regulations, and the need to improve and harmonise methods to reliably quantify landfill methane emissions. Moreover in this letter, CLEAR volunteered to serve as an independent consulting forum providing expertise and information on relevant landfill methane emission and mitigation tasks.
In the meantime, a TAC (technical adaptation committee) working group on methane capture was established to assess the feasibility of a robust and uniform set of landfill gas emission quantification tools, as well as the feasibility and impacts of setting possible targets for landfill gas emission reduction. The TAC working group has undertaken to provide recommendations to the Commission and member states by November 2010.
This TAC working group is chaired by Heijo Scharff (NV Afvalzorg, the Netherlands), member of CLEAR and chairman of the IWWG Task Group on Sustainable Landfilling. One subtask of the TAC working group will be to improve the default value for methane oxidation used in modelling and calculating landfill methane emission. The current default value recommended by IPCC and intended for national inventory reports is set at 10%. Lacking a widely accepted alternative, this value is applied worldwide on individual landfills regardless of the characteristics of landfill cover and climatic impacts. CLEAR members have taken part in intensive discussions on this issue over the past months and have agreed that this value is already obsolete. A few members put forward the idea to develop a practicable excel-based approach, a kind of simplified matrix, wherewith an “individual”, site-adapted default value for methane oxidation can be generated quite easily by the landfill operator to obtain a more meaningful estimate for the purpose of individual landfill emission reporting. The current status is to create a first draft to subsequently be circulated to all CLEAR members for discussion and experience input. The revised approach shall then be introduced to the TAC working group.
Future activities of the TG will include an administrative member meeting to be held within the framework of the upcoming ICLRS 2010 Symposium, in coordination with the IWWG Task Group on Sustainable Landfilling. Moreover, two CLEAR members, Julia Gebert (University of Hamburg) and Charlotte Scheutz (Technical University of Denmark), have organized and will chair two sessions on methane oxidation and emission measurements during ICLRS. In one session the focus will be on the identification of factors affecting in situ methane oxidation in landfill covers, engineered biocovers and biofilters, and the definition of criteria for cover material selection. The other session focuses on the development of reliable methods for quantification of methane emission from landfills, which is important in order to evaluate measures for reduction of GHG emissions by new mitigation technologies, and to provide inventory data for environmental assessment of different waste treatment options.
A further ongoing activity of CLEAR that emerged from an idea discussed during Sardinia 2009, is the compilation of a Special Issue of Waste Management journal on “Landfill gas mitigation in landfill covers”, focusing on the main working topics covered by CLEAR. The issue will be coordinated by chairman Marion Huber-Humer (BOKU University of Vienna, Austria) and Associate Editors and CLEAR members Peter Kjeldsen (Technical University of Denmark) and Kurt Spokas (United States Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Service). This Special Issue will provide an excellent opportunity to present the broad range of expertise and disciplines that CLEAR members cover, and to summarize the current knowledge and international status quo of landfill gas emission and methane oxidation research.
For more information on the CLEAR Task Group please visit the website http://ch4ox.lmem.us or contact the Task Group Chairman Marion Huber-Humer (e-mail: marion.huber-humer@boku.ac.at).