UNIT V PLEASE READ CAREFULLY

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Natural Gas Generation at a

Landfill

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Problem: A community of 50,000 people does not have a municipal recycling program, and it sends

all of its refuse to the municipal landfill. Will the landfill generate enough natural gas to meet the needs of the city if the municipality needs to annually generate 15 million cubic meters of natural gas

(methane) and the city collects all of the methane that is generated?

Additional information:

* Each resident generates 4.38 lbs. of refuse per day (see p. 43).

* Each pound of refuse generates 257 liters of methane (see p. 239).

Solution:

To calculate the quantity of methane

4.38 𝑙𝑏

𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑜𝑛 ∙ 𝑑𝑎𝑦 × 50,000 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 ×

257 𝐿 𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑒

𝑙𝑏 𝑜𝑓 𝑟𝑒𝑓𝑢𝑠𝑒 ×

1 𝑚3

1,000 𝐿 ×

365 𝑑𝑎𝑦

1 𝑦𝑒𝑎𝑟 = 𝟐𝟎, 𝟓𝟒𝟑, 𝟐𝟗𝟓 𝒎𝟑

Therefore, 20.5 million m3 of natural gas is produced per year. Yes, the landfill will

generate enough natural gas to meet the needs of the municipality.