The Methane Emission from the Large Solid Waste Landfill “Novosyolki” (St. Petersburg, Russia) Based on Mobile Measurements of Ground-Level Concentrations

Landfills for solid municipal waste are considerable sources of methane, which is one of the principal greenhouse gases. Due to the continuous formation of significant amounts of municipal waste, primarily related to the life of the population of megacities, estimates of methane emissions from the territory of large urban landfills remain relevant. In this paper, the problem is solved based on the coupling of the results of direct measurements of methane concentration with model calculations. The results of mobile measurements carried out near the “Novosyolki” municipal solid waste landfill (St. Petersburg, Russia) in April 2021 and 2024 are presented. The measurement data reveal local maxima of methane concentration in the route sections downwind of the landfill. The maximum values of CH4 concentrations recorded from a vehicle in this observation area reached ~9 ppmv, which significantly exceeds the background ground- level of ~2 ppmv. Average night and morning peak concentrations (5.0 ppmv) are noticeably higher than day and evening ones (2.3 ppmv). Numerical modeling of landfill gas aerial distribution, performed using a dispersion model taking into account the characteristics of atmospheric stability during the observation period, demonstrated qualitative agreement between the calculated ground-level methane concentrations and experimental data. Based on a comparison of the measurement results with the modeling data of the air pollution plume from the landfill territory, methane emission estimates were obtained amounting to 640 ± 190 kg CH₄/hr in April 2021 and 200 ± 50 kg CH₄/hr in April 2024. The observed significant decrease in emissions from 2021 to 2024 is consistent with the official information on the closure of the landfill in 2018 and the start of landfill cover and reclamation work, which continues to this day. Emissions from the territory of “Novosyolki” landfill can amount up to ~7% of the total anthropogenic methane emissions from the territory of St. Petersburg.

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