Empirical gas emission and oxidation measurement at cover soil of dumping site: example from Malaysia.
Methane (CH₄) is one of the most relevant greenhouse gases and it has a global warming potential 25 times greater than that of carbon dioxide (CO₂), risking human health and the environment. Microbial CH₄ oxidation in landfill cover soils may constitute a means of controlling CH₄ emissions. The study was intended to quantify CH₄ and CO₂ emissions rates at the Sungai Sedu open dumping landfill during the dry season, characterize their spatial and temporal variations, and measure the CH₄ oxidation associated with the landfill cover soil using a homemade static flux chamber. Concentrations of the gases were analyzed by a Micro-GC CP-4900. Two methods, kriging values and inverse distance weighting (IDW), were found almost identical. The findings of the proposed method show that the ratio of CH₄ to CO₂ emissions was 25.4 %, indicating higher CO₂ emissions than CH₄ emissions. Also, the average CH₄ oxidation in the landfill cover soil was 52.5 %. The CH₄ and CO₂ emissions did not show fixed-pattern temporal variation based on daytime measurements. Statistically, a negative relationship was found between CH₄ emissions and oxidation (R(2) = 0.46). It can be concluded that the variation in the CH₄ oxidation was mainly attributed to the properties of the landfill cover soil.
Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia. eng_abushammala@yahoo.com
Mohammed F M
MF
Abushammala
Noor Ezlin Ahmad
NE
Basri
Hassan
H
Basri
Abdul Amir H
AA
Kadhum
Ahmed Hussein
AH
El-Shafie
D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D000397:Air Pollution / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D008296:Malaysia; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D012037:Refuse Disposal / Q000379:methods*; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry*
D000393:Air Pollutants; D012987:Soil