@article{34471,
  author = {Chelsea V Preble and Sharon S Chen and Toshifumi Hotchi and Michael D Sohn and Randy L Maddalena and Marion L Russell and Nancy J Brown and Corinne D Scown and Thomas W Kirchstetter},
  title = {Air Pollutant Emission Rates for Dry Anaerobic Digestion and Composting of Organic Municipal Solid Waste},
  abstract = {<p>Dry anaerobic digestion (AD) of organic municipal solid waste (MSW) followed by composting of the residual digestate is a waste diversion strategy that generates biogas and soil amendment products. The AD-composting process avoids methane (CH4) emissions from landfilling, but emissions of other greenhouse gases, odorous/toxic species, and reactive compounds can affect net climate and air quality impacts. In situ measurements of key sources at two large-scale industrial facilities in California were conducted to quantify pollutant emission rates across the AD-composting process. These measurements established a strong relationship between flared biogas ammonia (NH3) content and emitted nitrogen oxides (NO<em>x</em>), indicating that fuel NO<em>x</em>&nbsp;formation is significant and dominates over the thermal or prompt NO<em>x</em>&nbsp;pathways when biogas NH3&nbsp;concentration exceeds ∼200 ppm. Composting is the largest source of CH4, carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions (∼60–70%), and dominate NH3, hydrogen sulfide (H2S), and volatile organic compounds (VOC) emissions (&gt;90%). The high CH4&nbsp;contribution to CO2-equivalent emissions demonstrates that composting can be an important CH4&nbsp;source, which could be reduced with improved aeration. Controlling greenhouse gas and toxic/odorous emissions from composting offers the greatest mitigation opportunities for reducing the climate and air quality impacts of the AD-composting process.</p>},
  year = {2020},
  journal = {Environmental Science & Technology},
  month = {11/2020},
  issn = {0013-936X},
  url = {https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.0c03953},
  doi = {10.1021/acs.est.0c0395310},
  language = {eng},
}