Salim Abboud

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Managing Municipal Wastes The Potential for
Carbon Sinks and Emission Offsets
By Salim Abboud Alberta Research Council, and
Jim Schubert City of Edmonton
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Presentation Outline

• Municipal waste types
• GHG emissions and/or sinks associated with
  municipal waste processes (Municipal waste life
  cycle)
• The Carbon Cycle (Organic Waste Perspective)
• Waste emissions in relation total emissions
• Edmonton Waste Management Centre
• Wastes handles in Edmonton Types, volumes and
  potential GHG offsets and carbon sinks
• Composting of Organic Wastes
• Conclusions

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Municipal Wastes

• Liquid Wastes (Wastewater)
• Solid Wastes

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Wastewater

• Raw sewer and storm water treated through
• Pretreatment
• Primary
• Secondary
• Tertiary
• Sludges from primary and secondary treatment can
  be used to produce CH4 through anaerobic
  digestion
• Final solids are termed Biosolids or sewage sludge

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Solid Wastes

• Recyclables
• Biosolids
• Municipal Solid Wastes (MSW)
• Residential
• Industrial and commercial (IC)
• Construction and Demolition (CD)

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Life Cycle Analysis of Wastes
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The Carbon Cycle (Organic Waste Perspective)
Atmosphere
CH4
CO2
CO2
CO2
CO2
CO2
CO2
CO2
Humus
Energy
CH4
CH4
Waste
Lagoon/Landfill
Anaerobic Digestion
Composting
Incinerator
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In 1999, the waste sector accounted for nearly 5
of net GHG emissions.
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In 1999, the waste sector accounted for nearly 4
of net GHG emissions
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Municipal Wastes

• Edmonton as a an example of what can be done with
  Municipal Wastes, and the
• Edmonton Waste Management Centre

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EDMONTON WASTE MANAGEMENT CENTRE
Olds
U of A
Other Municipality
ARC
ARC
Olds
Other Research Institutes ?
Researchers
NAIT
Facility
City of Edmonton
Issue/Opportunity Waste Management Research
U of A
NAIT
Other Organization
City of Edmonton
Fed. govt.
NSERC
Prov. govt

NRC
Mun. govt
Industry
Other ?
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N
EDMONTON WASTE MANAGEMENT CENTRE CLOVER BAR SITE
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Municipal Waste Processes Contributing to GHG
Emission Offsets or Carbon Sinks

• Anaerobic digestion of wastewater sludges
• Landfill gas recovery
• Recycling
• Composting
• Combustion

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Anaerobic Digestion of Wastewater Sludges
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Edmonton Gold Bar Wastewater Treatment Plant
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Solid Wastes
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Landfill Gas Recovery
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Clover Bar Landfill Gas Recovery and Treatment
Plant
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Recycling
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Composting
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Composting

• Composting is the microbiological degradation of
  organic compounds into CO2, H2O and stable
  organic humus forms. Proper management of this
  process requires optimization of the following
• CN ratio of the feedstock
• H2O content of the composting mix
• Aeration
• Microorganisms

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GHG Savings from Composting

• Avoidance of landfill CH4 emissions
• Carbon sequestration in soil
• Avoidance of chemical fertilisers and other
  chemical plant/soil additives
• Improved soil properties and related plant growth
• Rehabilitation of degraded land and mitigation of
  land degradation

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Anthropogenic GHG Emissions from Composting

• Machinery
• handling material and turning windrows
• Shredding material
• screening
• transporting and
• applying composted products
• Electricity

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Other GHG Emissions from Composting

• CO2
• CH4
• Overestimated in Canadian Inventory and in USEPA
  estimates
• recent results show much lower results
• N2O

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Combustion
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Conclusions

• Municipal Wastes have the potential to reduce GHG
  Emissions through
• GHG emission offsets, and
• Carbon Sinks
• The technology needed to achieve the above has
  been demonstrated and is currently optimized

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Conclusions

• The city of Edmonton has achieved a landfill
  diversion rate of over 70 and if combustion is
  used, the rate rises to 95
• The city of Edmonton has the potential for over
  500000 MTCE of annual offsets and sinks which
  translates to 0.5 to 1.0 T/person/year