A study of methane reduction in compost based landfill cover in Malaysia

Abstract

Landfill gases (LFG) emission especially methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) has become a serious issue nowadays through the ability in trapping radiation that lead to the global warming effect. A laboratory scale experiment was conducted to measure the performance of different types of top cover landfill implemented. 3 types of top cover material were studied, including sandy loam, compost and compost with vegetation. This research was monitored twice per week for duration 66 days with irrigation done once per week as a simulation of tropical weather. CH4 and CO2 sampling were measured by using Gas Analyzer (GA5000) in percentage measurement. The sampling of top cover was collected and analysed for pH, temperature, organic content, moisture content and C:N ratio. From the research, compost and compost with plant had showed an ideal condition for pH measurement (9.0-9.5), temperature reading (31.0-35.0˚C), organic content (40.0-80.0%), moisture content (40.0-80.0%) and C:N ratio (35.0-48.0). Compost had showed highest CH4 reduction at 0.2% on day 65 until 66 and CO2 by 1.8% on day 45. Compost with plant also had reduced CO2 by 0.8% on day 45. Hence, the result shows that compost and compost with the plant have high potential to be adapted at landfill corresponding to the suitability parameter analysis in line with LFG reduction.