Estimation of methane emissions from waste disposal sites in Lagos, Nigeria

Increase in municipal solid waste (MSW) and its management continues to be a major challenge for growing cities as landfills are the most common method of MSW disposal world over. Landfills are known to be one of the anthropogenic sources of methane (CH 4 ) and this gas is an important contributor to global warming. Many literature reports have been carried out to quantify methane from landfills, but little information is available about the quantity of methane emitted from waste disposal sites (WDS) in Lagos, Nigeria. In this study, the LandGEM model parameters k and L o were modified and used to estimate methane emissions from WDS in Lagos, Nigeria. The results showed that the k and L o values for the WDS were 0.237 yr -1 and 75.85 m 3 /tonne and the maximum CH 4 generation at the WDS are 29,709,414m 3 , 6,574,684 m 3 , 3,634,598 m 3 for Olushosun, Abule Egba and Solous 1WDS. The default parameters in the model was also used to estimate the CH 4 generation and this resulted in an overestimation of CH 4 with about 42%, 37% and 40% in Olushosun, Abule Egba and Solous WDS during the period considered. It is recommended that LFG parameters should be developed for developing countries in order to avoid over/under estimation of methane generation from their waste disposal sites. Furthermore, modeling errors could result in the design of oversized landfill gas (LFG) management systems. © 2018 Widener University School of Civil Engineering. All Rights Reserved.