Dioxins and Burning Landfill Gas

["Pat Costner" <pat.costner@dialb.greenpeace.org>]

  Following are a few papers that address the issue of dioxin 
  generation during the burning of landfill gas.  The vagaries in style 
  of presentation of the following papers can be attributed to a span 
  of several years and several assistants.   Any verbiage that follows 
  a particular citation is a verbatim quote from that citation.
  
  Pat
  
  
  
  
  
   Lahl, U., Wilken, M., Zeschmar-Lahl, and Jager, J.  1991. PCDD/PCDF 
  balance of different municipal waste management methods.  Chemosphere 
  23 ( 8-10): 1481-1489 .  
  
   For emission reduction, disposal gas [landfill gas] is often  
  treated or used in thermal processes.  ... Due to our  analyses, 
  exhaust gas after combustion of disposal gas can  contain 
  considerable amounts of PCDD/PCDF.  We found 75-217 pg  (TE)/m3, 
  other authors report values up to nearly 1 ng ( TE)/m3  (10).
  
  =====================
  
   Fiedler, H. 1993. Formation and Sources of PCDD/PCDF.  Organohalogen 
  Compounds 11: 221-228 
  
  Landfill Gases 
    Despite the high chlorine content in landfill gases burning of  
  these gases in muffle furnaces or internal combustion engines  
  results in relatively low dioxin emissions in the range of 0.1  ng 
  TEQ/m3 or lower ( HLfU 1991).
  
  ================
   Allen, Matthew R., Alan Braithwaite, Chris C. Hills.  1997.Trace 
  Organic Compounds in Landfill Gas at Seven U.K. Waste Disposal  
  Sites. Environ. Sci. Technol.  31:[4]:1054-61. 
  
  ================
  
   Jones, K.  Comparing air emissions from landfills and WTI plants.  
  Solid Waste Technologies. March/April 1994
  
   Unlike the scant health and environmental data available from  
  recycling facilities, there is a modest and growing data base  on 
  landfill air emissions.  Recent state and federal  regulatory 
  activities plus the development of dozens of  landfill gas-to-e rgy 
  projects, have helped to build an  emissions profile.  For instance, 
  to develop the background  for the New Source Performance Standards 
  proposed in May 1991,  the Environmental Protection Agency compiled 
  emissions data  for 22 landfills .  [2,3,4]  EPA's data from 13 of 
  these  facilities includes emissions associated with using gas  
  control systems, such as flares internal combustion engines  (ICEs), 
  and gas turbines.  A testing program of the California  Air Resources 
  Board (CARB) also helped to extend considerably  information on 
  landfill gas composition. [5]
  
    To quantify dioxins emissions from landfill gas control  devices 
  for this investigation, I used measurements reported  from flares and 
  ICEs in Germany. [9]  The German data was used  since quantitative 
  dioxin emissions data from controlled  landfills in the U.S. is 
  nonexistent.  
  
   2. "Air Emissions from Municipal Solid Waste 
  Landfills;  Background Information for Proposed Standards and 
  Guidelines,"  EPA Report #450/3-90, March 1991   
   3. "Emission Factor 
  Documentation for AP-42, Sections 2.7 and  4.2, Municipal Solid Waste 
  Landfills,"  U.S. EPA, September,  1992   
   4. Federal Register, Vol. 56, No. 104 and Vol. 58, No. 117.
   5.  "Air Pollution Control at Resource Recovery Facilities,  1991 
  Update,"  California Environmental Protection Agency,  December, 
  1991.
  
  ====================
   PCDD/PCDF releases from various waste management strategies   
  [undated, draft for publication]- 
    
   GH Eduljee, ERM P Dyke, ETSU, AEA Technology PW Cains, Technical 
  Products Division, AEA Technology
  
   In reality, the presence of PCDD/Fs in collected, untreated bulk 
  refuse and in the various waste fractions will result in their 
  transfer to downstream recycling and resource recovery options. 
  PCDD/Fs have been measured in compost, landfill gas and leachate, and 
  in gases and residues from metals recycling operations.
  
  
    The maximum quantity of landfill gas generated is 120-240m3 per 
  tonne of MSW. Fifty percent of the landfill gas leaves the landfill 
  site as an uncontrolled fugitive emission. Fifty percent of the 
  landfill gas is collected for energy recovery in a gas engine. The 
  generation of flue gas is 10 m3/m3 of raw gas (flue gas at 11% 
  oxygen). Emission factors are 0. 32-0.36 ng I-TEQ/m3 of fugitive gas, 
  and 0.1-1 ng I-TEQ/m3 of flue gas.
  
   P Dyke, ETSU, AEA Technology, B154, Harwell, Oxon OX11 0RA, UK Fax: 
  (Intl +44) (0)1235 433 981
  
  
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  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  Pat Costner
  P.O. Box 548, or 512 CR 2663
  Eureka Springs, Arkansas 72632 USA
  ph:  501-253-8440
  fx:  501-253-5540
  em:  pat.costner@dialb.greenpeace.org
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~