CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020
| Author | Giordano, Charles |
|---|---|
| Title | Top-down and bottom-up landfill methane emissions estimates: a comparative study of the European Union and the United States |
| Summary | Landfills are a significant source of anthropogenic methane (CH4) emissions. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas (GHG) with a global warming potential (GWP) 25-28 times that of carbon dioxide. This means environmental benefits of potential reductions could be realized in a much shorter time frame. The IPCC includes a set of models for estimating landfill methane emissions in its Guidelines for compiling bottom-up (B-U) national inventories. Top-down (T-D) studies using atmospheric-based measurements generate estimates independent of bottom-up (B-U) inventory estimates. This study includes analysis of more than 50 T-D studies conducted in both the United States (US) and European Union (EU) to determine context-dependency of the accuracy of inventory landfill emissions estimates. These findings are leveraged by information supplied through a comprehensive literature review of research regarding landfill emissions quantification, in order to draft meta-inferences explaining discrepancies observed between estimates. Both strands of knowledge inform application of a model framework for inferring T-D emissions estimates in three different scenarios. Results indicate that landfill emissions are more likely underestimated in the US than in the EU. This is potentially the result of US operators wrongly accounting for efficiency of landfill gas (LFG) recovery equipment in models for estimating emissions. As well, a lack of transparency in terms of reporting protocols applied may contribute to the lack of overall representativeness of accepted figures. Areas for further research include use of T-D and other measurement-based methods in landfill emissions inventory compilation, validation of EU landfill emissions estimates, and evaluation of the model framework applied here. |
| Supervisor | Illés, Zoltán; Castaldi, Marco |
| Department | Environment Sciences and Policy MSc |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2020/giordano_charles.pdf |
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