COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN THE MONITORING DATA AND METHANE GENERATION PREDICTION IN A BRAZILIAN LANDFILL

摘要

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the mathematical models used to predict the methan generation in the Caieiras landfill, which serves the city of Sao Paulo, and to compare the predictions with the results measured during the years of its operation. Approximate half of the biogas volume generated in a landfill is composed of methan. This is the most relevant gas due to the following reasons; firstly, because it is a greenhouse gas and secondly because it's combustion, besides from beneficial, will generate renewable energy. Landfill projects that burn methan are eligible to receive financial incentives - Carbon Credits- through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol. The Caieiras sanitary waste landfill compiles with the CDM project category for which a concept documentation exists, with the prediction of results, and also ubsequent periodic documents showing the goals achieved, all of these openly available and published on the Internet. In this article, the prediction models used at the Caieiras landfill is presented together with their parameters, results and efficiencies as well as a comparison in terms of relative efficiency between the different models.