The energy consumption throughout the world has increased substantially over the past
few years and the trend is projected to continue indefinitely. The primary sources of
energy are conventional fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal. The most apparent
negative impacts of these conventional fuels are global warming, poor air-quality, and
adverse health effects. Considering these negative impacts, it is necessary to develop and
use non-conventional sources of energy. Landfill gas (LFG) generated at landfills can
serve as a source of cleaner energy. LFG has substantial energy generation potential and,
if cleaned of certain impurities, can be used for several applications such as electricity
generation and conversion to high Btu gas. This thesis considers another application of
LFG, which consists of using it as a vehicular fuel for refuse trucks. Currently, limited
research has been performed on the development of such a methodology to evaluate the
application of LFG as a vehicular fuel for refuse truck operations.
The purpose of this thesis is to develop a methodology that can be used to evaluate the
use of LFG generated at landfills as a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) fuel source for
refuse trucks in Texas. The methodology simulates the gas generation process at a
landfill by using standard models developed by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The operations of a refuse truck fleet are replicated by using generic drive cycles
developed as part of this research. The economic feasibility is evaluated by estimating
the costs required for cleaning the LFG and converting the truck fleet from diesel to
LNG as well as quantifying the benefits obtained due to change in fuel consumption and
emission generation by the refuse trucks. The methodology was applied to a potential landfill in Texas. The results show that the methodology offers an innovative tool that
allows the stakeholders to evaluate the economic feasibility of using LFG for refuse
truck operations. The methodology also provides a flexible framework wherein each
component can be changed or tailored to meet the specific needs of the stakeholders.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/4704 |
| Date | 25 April 2007 |
| Creators | Gokhale, Bhushan |
| Contributors | Lord, Dominique |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Thesis, text |
| Format | 1180846 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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