Greenhouse gas emissions by the biogas from the Abandoned Solid Waste Final Disposal Site in City of Veracruz, Mexico

Abstract

The Abandoned Sanitary Landfill of the City of Veracruz, located to the north of the municipality, was built in the year 2000 and operated according to the regulations in force at the time, for a useful life of 10 years. However, it continued its operation irregularly, collapsing and becoming a controlled final disposal site that was closed by the state environmental authorities in 2019. Through the use of Google Earth satellite images using multicriteria techniques, it was determined that it has an area of 167 228 m² and an accumulated volume of waste of 1 505 052 m³. The Mexican Biogas Model 2.0 was used to estimate the generation of biogas that until the year 2023 was a total of 2 898 064 tons of biogas, and with the help of the methodology for the greenhouse effect calculation for urban solid waste, it was determined that in this same period a total of 2 522 057.3 tons of carbon dioxide, 1 162 154.8 tons of methane, and 47 115.9 tons of nitrous oxide were emitted. This represents a total of 47.5 Mt CO2 eq., which underscores the importance of minimizing greenhouse gas emissions and their impact on the environment due to global warming of the atmosphere, especially in the coastal ecosystem where the municipality of Veracruz, Mexico is located.