To meet our Paris Climate commitments, we cannot afford to overlook anything!
OUR WAR ON LANDFILL METHANE POLLUTION
Scope 3 Carbon Emission Reductions
Waste Management – Waste-to-energy White Paper
Executive Summary Landfills can produce methane when the waste deposited in them decomposes without the presence of oxygen. The methane can build up for a time until it escapes to the surface and into the atmosphere. Recently Bloomberg reported satellites spotted a large plume of methane leaking from one of Pakistan’s largest cities. The culprit was the city’s landfill.
The cloud was seen over Lahore on Aug. 6 and had an emission rate of about 126 metric tonnes of methane an hour according to estimates from geoanalytics firm Kayrros SAS. Methane is a super-potent greenhouse gas with more than 80 times the warming impact of carbon dioxide over two decades. That’s one reason scientists have been calling for rapid cuts to methane emissions in a bid to slow down climate change. Eco-Growth Environmental has developed technologies designed to divert landfill wastes and ultimately convert to the wastes to zero-emission thermal energy. Using science-based algorithms the Company is able to demonstrate the positive impact their technologies have on reducing supply chain (Scope 3) methane and other GHG pollutants.
A recent article penned by the Corporate Knights laments the dangerously slow approach business leaders, bankers and politicians have taken with regard to climate change. The Billion Pound Challenge is a platform designed to recognize businesses that expedite climate action. Aggregating individual carbon reductions on a blockchain enabled “Ledger” will provide a measuring tool required to manage our way to zero-net carbon emissions. Satellite Image of Methane escaping landfill at a rate of 126 metric tonnes per hour. That is the equivalent warming potential of 10,080 tonnes CO2 per hour. It takes 7 days for methane to spread across the entire earth
With no clear governmental guidelines concerning methane prevention in commercial composting facilities consumers are being misled about the true global warming potential of their organic wastes.
Calgary - Many Sustainability Directors believe they are doing the right thing by engaging a 3rd party to provide organics composting service. When the chain of custody of organics changes from the waste generator to the 3rd party composter Sustainability Director’s are led to believe the organics are destined for compost. In fact, in most cases the organics are simply landfilled adding to the global methane emissions catastrophe. The following two conditions must be met when constructing and managing a Compost Facility to ensure methane generation is avoided. They are:
1. Supplemental material must be mixed with compostable feedstock in preparation for composting to ensure correct carbon to nitrogen ratio between 30-1 – 50-1 in order to maximize the quality of the compost and minimize the volatilization of the decomposition process. 2. The temperature of the pile must be monitored and managed to keep it below 55c through turning, carbon addition and moisture management to minimize methane generation. 3. Microbes and fungi that compost grows is extremely valuable as a probiotic for degraded lands. When not properly managed, compost piles are a major source of methane pollution which is 86x more potent than CO2 over 20 years. It is recommended that Sustainability Directors research the compost handling protocols employed by their 3rd party compost facility to ensure proper handling and maintenance procedures are being followed to ensure methane generation is avoided.
Landfill GHG Avoidance Data collected from Satellites are confirming the catastrophic impact landfills have on global methane emissions, a super-potent GHG with more than 80× the warming impact than CO2 over two decades.
Global Warming Potential 1M3 methane = .6559 kg M3 warming potential 25× CO2 M3/tonne = .6559×25×Lo Inert: Lo @ 20 = 328 kg CO2e per metric tonne waste Moderate: Lo @120 = 1,968 kg CO2e per metric tonne waste Decomposable: Lo @160 = 2,624 kg CO2e per metric tonne waste
GHG Electricity Consumed
Province Kg Co2 / KWh B.C. 0.013 AB 0.790 SK 0.660 MB 0.003 ON 0.040 QC 0.001 NL 0.032 PE 0.020 NB 0.280 NS 0.600 NU 0.750 NT 0.390 YT 0.041
Calculating Carbon Avoidance – Landfill Methane
∑ [(T
dl
Where:
× Edl)+(Vi × Ei)+(Vm × Em)+(Vd × Ec)] – [(Tda × Ea)+(Kq × Ke)] BASELINE Tdl – transport distance to landfill Edl – emissions associated with transport to landfill Vi – volume (weight) of inert waste (tonnes) to landfill Ei – emission potential inert waste in landfill Vm – volume (weight) of moderate waste (tonnes) to landfill Em - emission potential moderate waste (tonnes) to landfill Vd - volume (weight) of composable waste (tonnes) to landfill Ec – emission potential of composable waste to landfill Tda – transport to dehydration / processing centre Ea - emissions avoided associated with transport to landfill Kq – KwH consumed to dehydrate waste / shred Ke – emissions per KwH (by Province)
Fossil Fuel Replacement - Biomass
Conversion: 1 KwH = 3,412 btu 1 gigajoule = 947,817 btu 1 gigajoule = 278 KwH
Diesel (kWh) Fuel Oil Natural Gas
kg CO2/gigaoule 85.7 82.8 60.0
∑ [(G × E ) + (T x E ] – [(K x K ) + (T j
ft
d
d
q
e
db
x Edb)]
BASELINE Where: Gj - Gigajoules of energy produced/offsetting fossil fuel Eft – Emissions associated with fuel type offset Td – transport to deliver fossil fuel Ed – emissions associated with transport of fossil fuel Kq – KwH consumed to dehydrate waste / shred Ke – emissions per KwH (by Province) Tdb– transport to deliver biomass fuel Edb – emissions associated with transport of biomass
Emissions Associated with Trucking
Energy Consumption by Appliance Eco-Growth Equipment Dehydrator #200 /day Dehydrator #800 /day Dehydrator #2000 /day Gasification Boiler Eco-Shredder
KwH Consumption 28.2 KwH / day 87.4 KwH / day 90.0 KwH / day 50 KwH / day 2.5 KwH /hour
Example Hotel in Banff National Park produces 350 kg of wet food waste per day. Previous to installing onsite dehydrator wet food waste was hauled to landfill 150 km away.
∑ [(T
dl
Where:
× Edl)+(Vi × Ei)+(Vm × Em)+(Vd × Ec)] – [(Tda × Ea)+(Kq × Ke)]
Tdl – transport distance to landfill = 150 km × 2 (return trip) x 365 days Edl – emissions associated with transport to landfill = .35 mt /20 × .47 × 300 Vi – volume (weight) of inert waste (tonnes) to landfill = 0 Ei – emission potential inert waste in landfill Vm – volume (weight) of moderate waste (tonnes) to landfill = 0 Em - emission potential moderate waste (tonnes) to landfill Vd - volume (weight) of composable waste (tonnes) to landfill = .35 mt/day × 365 Ec – emission potential of composable waste to landfill Tda – transport to dehydration site = 0 wet food waste dehydrated onsite Ea - emissions avoided associated with transport to landfill Kq – KwH consumed to dehydrate waste / shred = 87.4Kwh × 365 = 31,901 Ke – emissions per KwH (by Province) = Alberta .79kkg / KwH
∑ [(T × E )+(V × E )] – [(K × K )] ∑ [(109,500 × 2.46)+(128 × 2,624)] – [(31,901 × .79)] = 580,041 kg/CO dl
dl
d
c
q
e
1,276,000 lbs. CO2 recorded on the Billion Pound LEDGER – year 1
2
Example: Fossil Fuel Replacement Industrial laundry in Calgary consumes 25 kg of biomass per hour to heat process water. System operates 120 hours per week and replaces natural gas. Biomass energy value is .02 gigajoules/kg.
∑ [(G × E ) + (T x E ] – [(K x K ) + (T j
ft
d
d
q
e
db
x Edb)]
Where: Gj - Gigajoules of energy produced/offsetting fossil fuel .02 x 25 x 120 hours x 52 weeks Eft – Emissions associated with fuel type offset = 60 kg CO2/gigajoule Td – transport to deliver fossil fuel = 0 Ed – emissions associated with transport of fossil fuel Kq – KwH consumed to dehydrate waste / shred = 50 KwH/day x 5 days x 52 weeks Ke – emissions per KwH (by Province) Alberta .79kkg / KwH Tdb– transport to deliver biomass fuel = 0 biomass is picked up using existing logistics Edb – emissions associated with transport of biomass
∑ [(G × E )] – [(K x K )] ∑ [(3,120 × 60)] – [(13,000 x .79)] = 176,930 kg / CO j
ft
q
e
2
per year
389,246 lbs. CO2 recorded on the Billion Pound LEDGER – year 1
for helping us get closer to our target of reducing 1-billion pounds of CO2 pollution per year!
Forging the path to a sustainable plant!