Landfill gas containing methane is produced by anaerobic degradation of organic waste. Methane is a strong greenhouse gas and landfills are one of the major anthropogenic sources of atmospheric methane. Landfill methane may be oxidized by methanotrophic microorganisms in soils or waste materials utilizing oxygen that diffuses into the cover layer from the atmosphere. The methane oxidation process, which is governed by several environmental factors, can be exploited in engineered systems developed for methane emission mitigation.
In this paper, Charlotte Scheutz and colleagues suggest mathematical models that account for methane oxidation to be used to predict methane emissions from landfills. Additional research and technology development is needed before methane mitigation technologies utilizing microbial methane oxidation processes can become commercially viable and widely deployed.
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