40,000 m3/hour biogas into the atmosphere

The recent leakage of oil in Mexican Gulf got a huge attention in the media. However, there are continuous threats to our environment that are generally forgotten or perhaps accepted. Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam has one of these threats. This megacity with about 8 millions inhabitants has two landfills, receiving about 2,000,000 tons/year wastes. I visited one of them, which was covered, so full anaerobic digestion occurs and results in methane gas. The pipes collect this gas and lead directly to the atmosphere. A rough calculation on the amount of the biogas from these landfills point to about 40,000 m3/hour gas production (3,000 million tons CO2-equivalent per year). It is a serious continuous threat to the global environment, while it can be collected and converted to electricity or fuels. Let's hope that our initiation to collaborate with the country on "Waste Recovery-International Partnership" lead to improve this condition and a better global environment!




(Landfill gas evolution in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam)