This paper summarizes the assessment of different options for landfill gas utilization for the argentine scenario where the current primary energy matrix is based on natural gas as the main fuel fossil. The study focuses in the developing of standard capital and operative costs formulated from several projects developed around the world including small and high scales. Capital costs include civil works, landfill gas recovery and treatment system, engineering and technology. For the economic feasibility assessment the estimation of the net present value and the financial internal return rate were evaluated both in terms of the size of the project based on the MSW generation rate, in the range between 50.000 and 500.000 annual tons of municipal solid waste disposed. The options of landfill gas utilization evaluated were flaring, electricity generation and direct use. For the flow cost analysis, both the selling of energy and certified emission reductions in the Clean Development Market were considered.
Results after a sensitivity analysis from a range of economics showed that the economic sustainability of low and medium size landfill gas recovery projects is long to be achieved at the current energy and certified emission reductions trading prices. Under this scenario, for small-scale landfills without nearby requirements of energy, the flaring of the recovery LFG results as the more sustainable option from the environmental and economical points of views.
Landfill gas recovery, municipal solid waste, costs evaluation
