Landfill Gas to the Energy Potential of Turkey: A Scenario-based Multi-period Simulation

Abstract

Turkey is a developing country with increasing power demands and limited energy sources. Municipal solid waste processing landfilling and utilization of the gas to generate electric power and lower emissions has been used in developed countries for decades however it is relatively new in Turkey. The new regulations force municipalities in the country to build landfills to safely store the waste and secure the emission gases. The landfill gas can be utilized to produce energy and heat or if the quality is high it can be transported to a natural gas pipeline. In this article an overview of landfill gas-to-energy plants in the world is presented and the situation in Turkey is analyzed. A multi-period simulation methodology for municipalities is proposed to estimate the potential power generation and amount of methane that can be prevented. The municipalities in Turkey were classified into three categories and a scenario-based simulation is performed to estimate the energy generation and emission reduction that the country can gain if the landfill projects are activated according to the scenarios.