Landfill Gas Recovery in South Africa:
Status, Issues and Markets

By Jean E. Bogner and Catherine Lee, Lee International
January 2005

Abstract

This paper outlines the opportunity created by the Kyoto Protocol and addresses technical, non-technical, and market factors pertinent to landfill gas recovery in South Africa. The most important technical issues include predicting recoverable gas at sites with large inputs of commercial and industrial waste, assessing need for remedial engineering measures prior to implementing gas recovery, gas quality considerations, and optimum gas capture concurrent with landfilling operations. The important non-technical considerations include South Africa’s regulatory framework, structuring a project to meet market expectations, evolving changes of S. Africa’s electrical markets, and historical dependence on a coal-based energy supply. With respect to market opportunities, here we focus on minimizing risk and promoting investment through the sale of carbon credits via the Kyoto-approved Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The CDM allows developed countries to meet their emission reduction requirements through the purchase of carbon credits from CDM projects in developing countries. A landfill gas project in eThekwini [formerly Durban], which entered into a contract in 2004 to sell carbon credits to the World Bank Prototype Carbon Fund (PCF), has recently raised the visibility and illustrated the viability of S. African landfill methane CDM projects.

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Landfill Gas Recovery in South Africa: Status, Issues and Markets