Analysis of the potential use of landfill biogas energy and simulation of greenhouse gas emissions of different municipal solid waste management scenarios in Varginha, MG, Brazil

ABSTRACT The present work proposes to evaluate the economic and environmental viability of energy recovery from biogas in the landfill of Varginha-MG, as well to analyze greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and energy consumption in different scenarios of municipal solid waste (MSW) management. A 20-year projection of MSW generation and landfill operation were considered, whose biogas production was estimated through LandGEM software. The economic feasibility analysis was performed using the net present value (NPV), and the internal rate of return (IRR) as indicators. GHG emissions were estimated by applying the WARM model (Waste Reduction Model) considering the current MSW management scenario and three alternative ones. The scenarios diversified into recycling strategies, anaerobic digestion, landfill disposal and incineration with energy recovery. Only the energy recovery with a power of 150 kW resulted in economic viability. Moreover, the largest environmental benefits were obtained by scenario 3, based on the recovery of recyclable materials, anaerobic digestion and incineration of MSW, considerably reducing the volume of MSW landfilled. Among all management practices of the proposed scenarios, recycling resulted in greater energy gains and GHG emission removal.