Methane Fluxes from a Swedish Landfill Determined by Geostatistical Treatment of Static Chamber Measurements

• Published in: Environmental science & technology Vol. 34; no. 18; pp. 4044 - 4050
• Main Authors: BÖrjesson, Gunnar, Danielsson, Åsa, Svensson, Bo H
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Chemical Society 15.09.2000
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Atmospheric pollution; Dispersed sources and other; Emissions; Environmental monitoring; Exact sciences and technology; Landfill; Measurement; Methane; Pollution; Pollution sources. Measurement results; Sweden; Sweden; Europe; Methane; Cartography; Waste dumping; Geostatistics; Emission content; Spatial variation; Pollutant emission; Greenhouse gases; Kriging; Passive detection; Sanitary landfill; Air pollution; Sampling
• ISSN: 0013-936X; 1520-5851
• DOI: 10.1021/es991350s

Methane emissions from a Swedish landfill were measured with a static chamber technique on three occasions during 1997. Methane flux rates ranged from −15.2 × 10-3 to 40 g of CH4 m-2 h-1, and the spatial variability was high (CV = 343−386%). The spatial distribution of the emissions was estimated with the help of ordinary kriging, which is a spatial interpolation method. Three different approaches to estimate the total amounts were used:  kriging on logarithm-transformed data, kriging with extremes excluded, and linear interpolation of measurements. These were compared between themselves and with the flux rates measured with a tracer gas technique. While the latter gave an estimate of 41 kg of CH4 h-1 from the landfill (with small variations), the highest possible estimate obtained with static chambers and geostatistical methods was 9.7 kg of CH4 h-1. The conclusion is that static chambers can hardly be trusted for making more than small-scale estimates of landfill gas emissions.