The influence of waste composition on biogas generation model parameters

Abstract

Three landfill gas generation models following two established kinetic pathways–first order decay (LandGEM and IPCC) and sigmoidal growth (Modified-Gompertz) are considered and fitted against a range of methane generation data generated from large-scale degradation experiments of seven well-characterized municipal solid waste (MSW) specimens that were operated in an identical manner. The parameter values are obtained for specimens having significantly different compositions, ranging from “waste-rich” to “soil-rich”. Model parameters related to methane yield potential, mass of degraded decomposable organic carbon and daily methane yield are found to be proportional to the biodegradability of the specimens. However, parameters related to decay rate and time lag in the methane generation process are not significantly influenced by waste composition. This study contributes to guiding estimates of biogas generation model parameters based on waste composition data.