title: Field assessment of semi-aerobic condition and the methane correction factor for the semi-aerobic landfills provided by IPCC guidelines.
abstract: According to IPCC guidelines, a semi-aerobic landfill site produces one-half of the amount of CH4 produced by an equally-sized anaerobic landfill site. Therefore categorizing the landfill type is important on greenhouse gas inventories. In order to assess semi-aerobic condition in the sites and the MCF value for semi-aerobic landfill, landfill gas has been measured from vent pipes in five semi-aerobically designed landfills in South Korea. All of the five sites satisfied requirements of semi-aerobic landfills in 2006 IPCC guidelines. However, the ends of leachate collection pipes which are main entrance of air in the semi-aerobic landfill were closed in all five sites. The CH4/CO2 ratio in landfill gas, indicator of aerobic and anaerobic decomposition, ranged from 1.08 to 1.46 which is higher than the values (0.3-1.0) reported for semi-aerobic landfill sites and is rather close to those (1.0-2.0) for anaerobic landfill sites. The low CH4+CO2% in landfill gas implied air intrusion into the landfill. However, there was no evidence that air intrusion has caused by semi-aerobic design and operation. Therefore, the landfills investigated in this study are difficult to be classified as semi-aerobic landfills. Also MCF of 0.5 may significantly underestimate methane emissions compared to other researches. According to the carbon mass balance analyses, the higher MCF needs to be proposed for semi-aerobic landfills. Consequently, methane emission estimate should be based on field evaluation for the semi-aerobically designed landfills.
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 151-742, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Sangjae
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jeong
authors.affiliation: Korea Environment Corporation, 42 Hwangyeong-ro, Seo-gu, Incheon 404-170, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Anwoo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nam
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Seung-Muk
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Yi
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 151-742, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: jaeykim@snu.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Jae Young
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000332:Aerobiosis; D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D002244:Carbon / Q000032:analysis; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D005740:Gases / Q000032:analysis*; D008697:Methane / Q000032:analysis*; D056910:Republic of Korea; D064091:Waste Disposal Facilities
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D005740:Gases; D002244:Carbon; D008697:Methane
keywords: Emission factor; Greenhouse gas reduction; IPCC guidelines; Landfill gas; Methane correction factor; Semi-aerobic landfill