Methane emissions from landfills differentially underestimated worldwide
Landfill methane (CH4) emissions account for ~10% of all anthropogenic CH4 emissions globally, amounting to ~50 Tg per year. The current emission inventories utilize a first-order decay model as recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In contrast to recent top-down atmospheric...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2024
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/178285 |
| _version_ | 1826114074268663808 |
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| author | Wang, Yao Fang, Mingliang Lou, Ziyang He, Hongping Guo, Yuliang Pi, Xiaoqing Wang, Yijie Yin, Ke Fei, Xunchang |
| author2 | School of Civil and Environmental Engineering |
| author_facet | School of Civil and Environmental Engineering Wang, Yao Fang, Mingliang Lou, Ziyang He, Hongping Guo, Yuliang Pi, Xiaoqing Wang, Yijie Yin, Ke Fei, Xunchang |
| author_sort | Wang, Yao |
| collection | NTU |
| description | Landfill methane (CH4) emissions account for ~10% of all anthropogenic CH4 emissions globally, amounting to ~50 Tg per year. The current emission inventories utilize a first-order decay model as recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In contrast to recent top-down atmospheric inversion results, the mainstream bottom-up inventories exhibit significant biases, largely stemming from the inaccuracy in the a priori decay constant (k), an essential rate-controlling parameter in the model. We improve the k estimation method by incorporating compositional- and environmental-specific corrections, which are readily integrated into the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s model. The accuracy of CH4 emission predictions is significantly improved by using the corrected k values, which are benchmarked against the atmospheric inversion results. We extend the emission estimations to landfills worldwide and reveal up to 200% underestimations for individual landfills. Our findings highlight the importance of prioritizing landfill CH4 emission monitoring and reduction as one of the most cost-effective mitigation options to achieve current climate goals. |
| first_indexed | 2024-10-01T03:33:33Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | ntu-10356/178285 |
| institution | Nanyang Technological University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-10-01T03:33:33Z |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ntu-10356/1782852024-06-10T07:45:46Z Methane emissions from landfills differentially underestimated worldwide Wang, Yao Fang, Mingliang Lou, Ziyang He, Hongping Guo, Yuliang Pi, Xiaoqing Wang, Yijie Yin, Ke Fei, Xunchang School of Civil and Environmental Engineering Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute Engineering Methane emissions Landfills Landfill methane (CH4) emissions account for ~10% of all anthropogenic CH4 emissions globally, amounting to ~50 Tg per year. The current emission inventories utilize a first-order decay model as recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In contrast to recent top-down atmospheric inversion results, the mainstream bottom-up inventories exhibit significant biases, largely stemming from the inaccuracy in the a priori decay constant (k), an essential rate-controlling parameter in the model. We improve the k estimation method by incorporating compositional- and environmental-specific corrections, which are readily integrated into the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s model. The accuracy of CH4 emission predictions is significantly improved by using the corrected k values, which are benchmarked against the atmospheric inversion results. We extend the emission estimations to landfills worldwide and reveal up to 200% underestimations for individual landfills. Our findings highlight the importance of prioritizing landfill CH4 emission monitoring and reduction as one of the most cost-effective mitigation options to achieve current climate goals. Nanyang Technological University The authors received no specific funding for this work. We acknowledge Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, for providing research scholarships for this study. 2024-06-10T07:45:46Z 2024-06-10T07:45:46Z 2024 Journal Article Wang, Y., Fang, M., Lou, Z., He, H., Guo, Y., Pi, X., Wang, Y., Yin, K. & Fei, X. (2024). Methane emissions from landfills differentially underestimated worldwide. Nature Sustainability, 7(4), 496-507. https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41893-024-01307-9 2398-9629 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/178285 10.1038/s41893-024-01307-9 2-s2.0-85186584429 4 7 496 507 en Nature Sustainability © 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited. All rights reserved. |
| spellingShingle | Engineering Methane emissions Landfills Wang, Yao Fang, Mingliang Lou, Ziyang He, Hongping Guo, Yuliang Pi, Xiaoqing Wang, Yijie Yin, Ke Fei, Xunchang Methane emissions from landfills differentially underestimated worldwide |
| title | Methane emissions from landfills differentially underestimated worldwide |
| title_full | Methane emissions from landfills differentially underestimated worldwide |
| title_fullStr | Methane emissions from landfills differentially underestimated worldwide |
| title_full_unstemmed | Methane emissions from landfills differentially underestimated worldwide |
| title_short | Methane emissions from landfills differentially underestimated worldwide |
| title_sort | methane emissions from landfills differentially underestimated worldwide |
| topic | Engineering Methane emissions Landfills |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/178285 |
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