Carbon emission pinch analysis for sustainable landfill

Abstract

Renewable energy, energy efficiency and carbon capture and sequestration, are among several initiatives to reduce global carbon emission as an effort to mitigate global warming. Apart from reducing carbon footprint, another alternative to combat global warming is through effective solid waste management for landfill. While landfill is the most common solid waste treatment options in most parts of the worlds, however in densely populated area, as land availability may be scarce, careful planning and targeting is therefore required to reduce the landfilling rate. It is envisaged that an effective solid waste management strategy can reduce the amount of waste channeled to landfill. Since different waste management technologies requires different size of land area and have different carbon emission reduction impact, question that are often asked in correspond to this aspect includes; What is the suitable waste management technology that should be practiced to reduce the carbon footprint? How much land footprint is reduced? What are the carbon emission intensity of a landfill and how much it may contribute to global warming? In order to answer these questions, a new targeting technique based on carbon emission pinch analysis is developed. This technique aims to identify the optimal landfill waste management technologies based on specify carbon emission reduction target. It can also target the footprint of landfill area through graphical representation.