The Feasibility of Using Methane Gas to Generate Electric Power from a Shenyang MSW Engineering Landfill

摘要

The world economy is developing rapidly and the fossil-fuel energy will be empty soon, we should save energy for human to live. The population is increasing and the municipal solid wastes (MSW) are piling up, we need a tidy, clean, and healthful environment. We need control the MSW. We need the world to develop in a sustainable way too. This paper considers both saving energy and control MSW. It finds that to generate electric power is possible from a Shenyang MSW engineering landfill. The paper analyzes the MSW components of a Shenyang engineering landfill in DaXin town, Liaoning Province, P.R.China. It calculates the annual volume of the methane gas (CH_4) emitted from the landfill, the peak volume years of emitted methane gas, and the life time of emitting methane gas in the landfill. The volumes and the life time are compared with a same size contrast MSW engineering landfill in U.S. Considering the electric power price difference between the landfill gas power station and the common combustion power station and the benefit or government policies for using power from landfill gas in U.S., the paper analyzes the feasibility of using the Shenyang MSW methane gas to generate electric power. It also proposes the harmfulness of the gases from the landfill and the problems in the landfill now and in the near future.