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Topic Name: The Municipal Solid Waste Landfill as a Source of Montreal Protocol-restricted Halocarbons in the United States and United Kingdom
Category: Environmental engineering
Research persons: Hodson, E.
Location: Cambridge, United States
Details
Abstract
Central to the study of stratospheric ozone recovery and climate change, is
the ability to predict emissions of Montreal Protocol-restricted halocarbons (MPGs)
over the coming decades. The prediction of emissions has become difficult as
global production of MPGs has rapidly declined establishing “banks” (MPGs which
have been produced but not yet released) as the main emission sources. Both the
magnitude and release rate of global banks is quite uncertain. Very few field
studies have been conducted to provide estimates of global bank emissions from
individual sources within countries. This thesis provides the first known
observation-based estimates of CFC-12, CFC-11, CFC-113, and CH3CCl3 emissions in
the United States (US) and United Kingdom (UK) from municipal solid waste (MSW)
landfills.
With several hundred MSW landfills in both the US and UK, estimating
emissions of MPGs from landfills required a targeted approach. Whole landfill
mixing ratios and flow rates were sampled monthly at one landfill in southern
Massachusetts to provide temporal coverage. Spatial coverage was achieved
through one time sampling at seven landfills in Massachusetts and through data
provided by nine UK landfills for CFC-12 and CFC-11. Only actively managed MSW
landfills were sampled.
US and UK MPG landfill emissions were estimated and compared to recent
observation-based estimates of total US and UK MPG emissions to determine the
importance of the landfill source. US MPG landfill emissions were estimated to
be 0.008 - 0.08 Gg year−1. For all four MPGs, US landfill emissions
were 0.6% of total US emissions. The UK landfill emission estimates were 6%
and 0.8% of total UK CFC-12 and CFC-11 emissions, respectively. All estimates
were accurate to within a factor of 2. This indicates that landfills are not
currently a significant source of lingering MPG emissions in the US and UK. The
implications are that the majority of MPG emissions in industrialized countries
are likely coming from faster emitting sources.
About The Researcher :
Hodson, E.
Ph.D. Thesis, Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, MIT,
2008
| Tags: |
Solid Waste - Halocarbons - stratospheric ozone recovery - climate change - |
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