J Mater Cycles Waste Manag (2008) 10:165172

DOI 10.1007/s10163-008-0202-8

Springer 2008

ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Tomonori Ishigaki Chu Van Chung Nguyen Nhu Sang
Michihiko Ike Koji Otsuka Masato Yamada
Yuzo Inoue

Estimation and field measurement of methane emission from waste landfills

in Hanoi, Vietnam

Received: September 14, 2007 / Accepted: April 9, 2008

Abstract A methodology for estimating the methane emissions from waste landfills in Hanoi, Vietnam, as part of a
case study on Asian cities, was derived based on a survey
of documents and statistics related to waste management,
interviews with persons in charge, and field investigations
at landfill sites. The waste management system in Hanoi
was analyzed to evaluate the methane emissions from waste
landfill sites. The quantity of waste deposited into the landfill was evaluated from an investigation of the waste stream.
The composition of municipal waste was surveyed in several
districts in the Hanoi city area, and the quantities of degradable organic waste that had been deposited into landfill for
the past 15 years were estimated. Field surveys on methane
emissions from landfills of different ages (0.5, 2, and 8 years)
were conducted and their methane emissions were estimated to be 120, 22.5, and 4.38 ml/min/m2, respectively. The
first-order reaction rate of methane generation was obtained
as 0.51/year. Methane emissions from waste landfills were
calculated by a first-order decay model using this emission
factor and the amount of landfilled degradable waste. The
estimates of methane emissions using the model accorded
well with the estimates of the field survey. These results
revealed that methane emissions from waste landfills esti-

T. Ishigaki (*)
Department of Environmental Solution Technology, Ryukoku
University, 1-5 Yokotani, Seta-Oe, Otsu, Shiga 520-2194, Japan
Tel. +81-77-544-7101; Fax +81-77-544-7130
e-mail: ishigaki@rins.ryukoku.ac.jp
C.V. Chung
Hanoi Urban Environmental Cooperation, Hanoi, Socialist Republic
of Vietnam
N.N. Sang M. Ike
The Division of Sustainable Energy and Environmental Engineering,
Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan
K. Otsuka
Japan Environmental Sanitation Center, Kawasaki, Japan
M. Yamada Y. Inoue
Research Center for Material Cycles and Waste Management,
National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, Japan

mated by regional-specific and precise information on the

waste stream are essential for accurately determining
the behavior of methane emissions from waste landfills in
the past, present, and future.
Key words Greenhouse effect gas Methane Waste landfill Clean development mechanism Vietnam

Introduction
In Japan, the total emissions of greenhouse-effect gases
(GHGs) in 2004 were 8.0% higher than those in 1990,1
although the target for GHGs in Japan during the first
commitment period (20082012) is a 6% reduction of the
amount of GHG emissions compared to 1990.2 As it is
almost impossible to achieve this target by domestic actions
alone, the flexibility mechanisms adopted in the Kyoto Protocol will be indispensable for achieving the target reductions of GHG emissions for Japan. In the Kyoto Protocol,
three such mechanisms joint implementation (JI), a clean
development mechanism (CDM), and emissions trading
(ET) are available to assist parties in meeting their GHG
emissions commitments. Solid waste disposal sites are a
major anthropogenic source of methane emission. Methane
is produced by the anaerobic decay of organic waste such
as garbage, wood, and paper. Suppression of methanogenesis, avoidance of organic waste disposal, or flaring/utilization of landfill methane is an attractive target for CDM
projects since a large proportion of organic waste is still
directly deposited into waste landfills in most developing
countries.
Over the past several decades, methane emissions from
waste landfills have been usually estimated using statistics
on the population and the quality and quantity of waste.3,4
The uncertainty in this method of estimation in other
words, the difference between estimates and observed emissions is an ongoing problem, and improvements in the
accuracy of estimates are crucial for the development of
CDM projects.5 For instance, until an accurate inventory of

166

emissions is obtained, appropriate evaluation of the baseline and effect of CDM operation on GHG reduction cannot
be expected. Furthermore, a CDM project must aim not
only at reducing GHG emissions, but should also have the
benefit of improving the regional economy, public health,
or environmental quality from the viewpoint of sustainable
development.6 Evaluation of landfill gas emissions also contributes to assessing the state of long-term stabilization of
waste landfill, and it may guide appropriate operation,
maintenance, or both of landfills for environmental safety.
The resolution of these technical issues of CDM projects
on waste landfills offers urgent research topics to show a
clear way to achieve the promised target reduction of GHG
emissions. The evaluation of methane emissions from waste
landfills has been executed by field measurements or estimations with waste statistics and a decay model. However,
most studies on landfill methane emissions have been
carried out in industrialized countries in temperate or boreal
zones,710 and the nature of these emissions in tropical or
subtropical zones such as Southeast Asian countries has
rarely been investigated. The quality and quantity of waste
deposited in landfills depend not only on the economy or
peoples lifestyles but also on the nature of the waste stream,
which depends on the generation of waste and the manner
of source separation, collection, resource recovering (or
recycling), and detoxification and/or volume reduction
measures (including incineration). Moreover, the behavior
of methane emissions from landfills will be affected by the
quality of the waste, the climate and geological conditions
of the sites, and the structure of landfills. Most Southeast
Asian countries have tended to adopt nonspecific parameters for estimating methane emissions obtained from regions
having different conditions in their GHG emission behavior. Therefore, the specific behavior of landfill methane
emissions in Southeast Asian countries should be investigated in detail.
As a case study of urban areas in Southeast Asian countries, methane emissions from the waste landfill sites in
Hanoi, Vietnam, were investigated based on a document
survey and field measurements with the study aimed at
being applicable to other Asian countries. To estimate
methane emissions from waste landfills, the streams of
organic waste before landfilling were estimated in Hanoi
from a document search, exploratory investigations, and
interviews with persons in charge. Furthermore, to obtain
the regional-specific behavior of methane emission from
waste landfills, field measurements were executed in both
operating and closed waste landfills in Hanoi.

Materials and methods

Waste flow analysis in Hanoi, Vietnam
To estimate the methane emissions from waste landfills in
Hanoi, the amount of waste generated and its composition
were investigated by a document survey and by interviewing the people in charge of the operation of landfill sites.
Historical waste generation in Vietnam was obtained from
official statistics11 and reports on development studies by
the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).12 Furthermore, we obtained estimates of the amount of waste
collection from interviewing people in the collection and
transfer facilities. Discrepancies between surveyed values in
this study and JICA estimates were observed; we have corrected them to fit the former statistics from the Hanoi
municipality. The composition of waste was investigated in
several administrative districts where waste had different
features and was collected using different systems. The
current situation of the waste stream was investigated by
interviews with relevant officials in the waste treatment
facilities run by the Hanoi Urban Environment Company
(URENCO), and the possibilities for the development of a
waste management system are discussed. Finally, the entire
waste stream for Hanoi city is shown, and the inventory and
flow of each waste component are estimated to provide the
amount and components of final waste disposal.
Site description and survey schedule
A field survey of methane emissions was conducted on
January 2527, 2005, at Nam Son and Tay Mo landfill sites,
both managed by URENCO. General descriptions of
the landfills are shown in Table 1. Waste disposed of at these
landfills contained municipal solid waste (MSW),
road cleaning residue, and industrial waste collected by
URENCO; the largest component was MSW (Fig. 1). Tay
Mo landfill is about 10 km from central Hanoi. This site was
officially closed in 1998, but our interviews revealed that
unscheduled disposals had continued until 2000. Nam Son
landfill, which opened after Tay Mo landfill had closed, is
located in a suburban area 60 km from central Hanoi. The
construction and operation of Nam Son landfill was divided
into several phases. The first phase (phase 1) was finished by
2001. The field survey in this study was carried out after the
second phase (phase 2) had begun. Cell 4 was the first landfill section in phase 2 and disposal had already finished 6

Table 1. Descriptions of the landfill sites studied

Site

Period of
landfill

Area

Landfill method

Condition of operation and maintenance

Tay Mo
Nam Son (phase 1)
Nam Son (cell 4)

19972000
20002001
20012004

4.9 ha
13 ha
50 ha

Pile up method
Cell method (down fill) pile up
Cell method (down fill) pile up

No daily cover, no artificial liner, no gas exhaust pipe

Daily cover, geological and artificial liner, gas exhaust pipe
Daily cover, geological and artificial liner, gas exhaust pipe

167
Fig. 1. Waste treatment stream
managed by the Hanoi Urban
Environment Company
(URENCO) in the Hanoi urban
area in 2002 in tons/day

Markets and
Restaurants

Residences, Hotels
and Official buildings

Medical institutions
(Medical waste)
5

recycle

1,472

Model area

137

Composting plant

selftreatment

Incineration plant

1,472

69

Factories
(industrial waste)

Construction and
Demolition
(soils, bricks)

1
800

Incineration plant

0.1

800
Landfill (Lam Du)

Landfill (Nam Son)

recycle

months before the field survey took place. This study investigated methane emissions in the Tay Mo landfill and in
phase 1 and cell 4 of the Nam Son landfill; these are sites of
different ages but subject to similar types of waste disposal
that could be categorized as unmanaged deep solid waste
disposal site (SWDS) in terms of IPCC guidelines.13

Methane emission from the landfill surface

Points or areas on the landfill surface with relatively high
methane column concentrations were detected by preliminary scanning using an infrared laser methane detector
(Anritsu, Atsugi, Japan). Surface methane flux was estimated by the static chamber method14 at points selected by
preliminary scanning or random determination. The
methane concentrations in the gas samples from the static
chamber were measured using a gas chromatograph (GC
390B, GL Science, Tokyo, Japan) equipped with a flame
ionization detector. The methane flux, MF (ml/min/m2), was
calculated using the following equation:
MF = a h

(1)

where h (m) was the height of the chamber and a (ppmv/

min) were changes in the concentration of the gas taken
from the chamber over time. Contour maps for methane
emissions were produced by geostatistical Kriging
methods10,15 using the surface mapping software Surfer
(Golden Software, Golden, CO, USA).

Estimation of methane emissions from waste landfills

The methane emission potential, E, from degradable organic
carbon (DOC, tons) was estimated using the following
equation3,4:
E = MCF DOC DOC F F 16 12

(2)

where MCF () is the methane correction factor, 1.0; DOCF

is the dissimilated DOC content, 0.5; and F is the methane
content in landfill gas (LFG), 0.5. Furthermore, the annual
change in the methane emission from the waste landfill was
assumed to decrease following first-order decay (FOD)
kinetics:

Ct = C0 exp (kt )

(3)
2

where C0 (ml/min/m ) is the initial methane emission rate,

Ct (ml/min/m2) is the methane emission rate t years later,
and k (per year) is the first-order reaction rate. The fitting
of the estimated time-course changes in methane emissions
will allow an estimation of the first-order decay rate (k) and
the half-life (= 1/k). In this study, the k value was estimated
using the methane emission from landfills of different ages
where wastes from Hanoi had been disposed of.

Results and discussion

Waste management system in Hanoi
The organizations in charge of waste management in Hanoi
are the Hanoi Department of Science, Technology, and the
Environment (DOSTE) and the Hanoi Transport and
Urban Public Works Service (TUPWS) under the Hanoi
Peoples Committee. DOSTE is responsible for overall
planning, landfill management, approval, and permission,
whereas TUPWS manages the urban infrastructural system;
several sections of TUPWS have been corporatized. Waste
in central Hanoi is managed by URENCO, which is one of
the important subdivisions of TUPWS. The major activities
of URENCO are the collection, transportation, and disposal of waste, compost production, road cleaning, night
soil collection, and management of public toilets. The urban
districts managed by URENCO include Ba Dinh, Tay Ho,
Hoan Kiem, Hai Ba Trung, Dong Da, Thanh Xuam, and
Cau Giay; the area covered by URENCO is 90 km2 (about
10% of the entire area of Hanoi city). The population of
the area under waste collection by URENCO is about 1.7
million (59% of the total population of Hanoi city); the
waste collection coverage by URENCO was 84% of the
Hanoi total.12 Within URENCO, six Environment Enterprises have been organized based on urban districts and are
responsible for collection of municipal waste from their
districts. Other organizations within URENCO are the
Nam Son waste management complex, which consists of
waste landfills and industrial waste treatment facilities, the
Cau Dien composting plant, medical and industrial waste
treatment facilities, and a workshop that is responsible for

168
Table 2. Composition of waste collected by the Hanoi Urban Environment Company (URENCO)
MW1

Garbage, grass, leaves

Paper
Leather, rubber
Plastics
Textiles
Wood
Glass
Bone, shell
Metals
Ceramics
Bricks, others
Total

MW2

(kg)

(%)

36.5
5.8
0.3
7.8
2.0
0.5
0.8
0.4
0.3
0.3
38.2
92.6

39.4
6.2
0.3
8.4
2.2
0.5
0.9
0.4
0.3
0.3
41.2
100

(kg)
49.6
4.4
0.0
7.8
2.6
0.8
0.1
0.3
0.0
1.7
21.0
88.2

(%)

Average
composition
(%)

56.3
4.9
0
8.8
2.9
0.9
0.1
0.3
0
1.9
23.8
100

47.8
5.6
0.1
8.6
2.6
0.7
0.5
0.4
0.1
1.1
32.5
100

Previous
Surveya
(%)
42.0
5.3
7.2
1.8
1.4
1.3
0.6
40.6
100

OW
(kg)

(%)

34.4
1.0
0.1
2.0
0.1
5.3
0.0
0.0
0.2

75.0
2.1
0.1
4.3
0.2
11.6
0.0
0.0
0.3

3.0
45.9

6.4
100

a
Survey by JICA in 1994
MW1, municipal waste from areas not including large markets; MW2, municipal waste from areas including large markets; OW, organic waste

manufacturing and maintaining trucks, handcarts, and containers for waste collection.

residues of 1 and 0.1 tons per day were disposed of at the

Nam Son landfill. C&D waste was generated at a rate of
800 tons per day and was directly landfilled at the Lam
Du landfill.

Current waste stream in Hanoi

In Hanoi, MSW generated from households or small companies is manually collected using handcarts along the
streets. Collected waste is transferred to a large truck and
transported to the Nam Son landfill. Food-derived organic
waste generated from markets and restaurants and the
organic garbage from a part of the Hoan Kiem district are
separately collected and composted in the Cau Dien composting plant. The residue here that is unsuitable for composting is separated and disposed of at the Nam Son landfill.
Valuable materials such as metals, glass bottles, cardboard,
and plastics are mainly collected by so-called waste pickers
at the point of generation and the waste landfill. Medical
waste is collected and transported to an exclusive incineration plant using a specialized truck. Incineration residue
from this process is disposed of at the Nam Son landfill.
Industrial waste generated from manufacturing processes is
principally treated by the generators themselves; however,
some companies outsource their waste treatment to
URENCO. This industrial waste was landfilled directly or
landfilled after incineration. Construction and demolition
(C&D) waste, including surplus soil, is disposed of at
another landfill (Lam Du) specializing in these kinds of
wastes.
Figure 1 shows the waste stream in 2002 obtained by
interviewing officials at the Environment Enterprises. The
rate of generation of MSW was 1609 tons per day. Of this
91.5% (1472 tons per day) was directly landfilled. Other
waste (137 tons per day) was treated in the composting
plant, and residue unsuitable for composting (69 tons per
day) was landfilled. Statistics gathered by URENCO show
that the amount of waste collected in 2002 was 537 177
tons over the 334 collection days. The incineration rates
of medical waste and industrial waste were 5 tons and 1
ton per day, respectively, and the respective incinerated

Waste composition
Since several big markets existing in Hanoi are large generators of organic waste; the waste composition of a collection area is expected to be influenced by the presence or
absence of such big markets. Therefore, the composition of
the waste collected in urban districts which do not include
big markets (MW1) and those which do (MW2), as well as
that of separately collected organic waste (OW), was investigated. Source separation of organic waste was conducted
experimentally in some areas in urban districts. The results
of the waste composition analysis are shown in Table 2.
Average compositions of MW1 and MW2 revealed that the
fraction made up of garbage and plants showed the highest
percentage (47.8%), followed by a bricks and fine fractions
(32.5%). These two fractions accounted for approximately
80% of the collected waste. The composition of the remaining fractions was made up of plastic (8.6%), paper (5.6%),
and textiles (2.6%). These results accord well with the
results of the waste composition analysis performed by
JICA in 2000.12 In comparison with the waste composition
in Japan, the fraction of paper was considerably low and the
fractions of glass, metal, and plastic in the averaged waste
were also low. These fractions might be recovered by waste
pickers as valuable materials before collection. In contrast,
the fraction of brick and other fine fractions comprised an
important share of MW1 and MW2. This might be ascribed
to the incorporation of fuel residues such as briquettes used
for cooking and/or heating and fine street refuse. The fraction of garbage and plants accounted for 75% of the OW
that was separately collected. Although the fraction of OW
inadequate for composting was 20%, it was considered that
source separation of organics could efficiently work in
Hanoi.

169

Prediction of annual changes in the amount of

landfilled waste
The amounts of annual landfilled waste in the past and
future were estimated using the results of document research
and interviews. The amount of waste to be collected from
2000 to 2010, as estimated by the JICA study,12 was fitted
to a growth curve and extrapolated according to the amount
of past waste collection. The amounts estimated by JICA
were corrected by the growth curve constructed for recent
amounts obtained by interviews in this study. The predicted
amount of MSW collection is shown in Fig. 2.
With the composting plant in Cau Dien, which began
operating in 2000, a treatment stream for organic waste was
established that did not go directly to landfill. Therefore,
the amount of landfill waste was estimated for two streams:
the stream of waste for composting (from markets and separately collected organic waste) and the stream of waste to

Amount of waste landfilling (ton/day)

2500

Measurement of surface methane flux in

waste landfill sites

2000

1500

1000

500

0
1985

be directly landfilled. First, the composition of organic

waste in collected waste was assumed to be constant (8.5%,
Fig. 1). The composition of waste that might be transported
to the composting plant was presumed to be that of OW
shown in Table 2. The residue produced from the composting plant (69 tons per day) was estimated to be landfilled,
although it will experience a certain delay before being
transported to the landfill site. During the composting
process, it was assumed that the fraction of garbage and
plants that would be included in the noncompostable residue
was 40% of the initial amount. The fraction that was unsuitable for composting was assumed to be landfilled completely. The average composition of collected waste (MW1
and MW2) was used as the composition of the directly
landfilled waste. The annual number of days that the collection service operated was set as 334. On these assumptions, the amount of the landfilled organic waste was
estimated (Table 3).

1990

1995

2000

2005

2010

2015

year

Fig. 2. Estimations of the amount of municipal waste collected by

URENCO. Solid circles, estimated values in this study; open circles,
surveyed values; squares, estimated value by JICA (2000)12

The results of the field investigation of the methane flux

from landfill surfaces are summarized in Table 4. Preliminary screening determined six candidate points for methane
emissions in the Tay Mo landfill. In addition, seven points
were also selected randomly for methane flux investigation.
At these 13 points (Fig. 3), a positive value of methane flux
(efflux) was observed at only 3 points, while a negative flux
(influx) was observed at 4 points. Fluxes at other points
were below the detection limit. The distribution of surface
methane flux at the Tay Mo landfill indicated that the emission points that showed both efflux and influx were located
around the edge of the landfill and were not present on the
plain top surface. The maximum and average methane
fluxes in the Tay Mo landfill were 29 and 4.38 ml/min/m2,
respectively.
In phase 1 of the Nam Son landfill, 13 points were
selected as candidate emission points by preliminary scan-

Table 3. Estimation of the amount of landfill for organic waste components

Year

Garbage,
grass, leaves

Paper

Textiles

Wood

Others (inorganic
components)

1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005

88 972
96 394
104 435
109 560
118 700
128 602
139 330
150 953
163 546
177 189
191 971
207 985
225 336
244 133
264 499
286 564

10 368
11 233
12 170
12 480
13 521
14 649
15 872
17 196
18 630
20 184
21 868
23 692
25 669
27 810
30 130
32 644

4 754
5 150
5 580
5 574
6 039
6 543
7 089
7 681
8 321
9 015
9 768
10 582
11 465
12 422
13 458
14 580

1 347
1 459
1 581
3 896
4 221
4 573
4 954
5 368
5 816
6 301
6 826
7 396
8 013
8 681
9 405
10 190

60 441
65 484
70 946
71 616
77 591
84 063
91 076
98 674
106 905
115 824
125 486
135 954
147 296
159 583
172 896
187 319

170
Table 4. Summary of field investigation of methane fluxes at the surface of landfills
Site

No. of
measured
points

Points with
positive
flux

Points with
negative
flux

Undetected

Range of flux
(ml/min/m2)

Average
coefficient of
variance (ml/min/m2)

Tay Mo
Nam Son (phase 1)
Nam Son (cell 4)

13
14
18

3
10
11

4
2
7

6
2
0

2.8 to 29
0.89 to 150
5.6 to 770

4.38 277%
22.5 186%
120 171%

ND

ND
ND
-0.046

0.038

-0.064
20

40

80

29

20

ND
60

80

100

120

60
40

-2.8

ND

ND 100

0.15

ND

120

140

160

26
24
22
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
-2
-4

ml/min/m2

300

50

100

150

200

0.036

250
0.041

17

ND
200
ND

0.0315

150

15
150

100
-0.89
50

16

37

-0.73
22

140
130
120
110
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
-10

ml/min/m2

0
Fig. 3. Distribution of methane flux at the Tay Mo landfill site. ND,
not detected

ning. Among these points, efflux was observed at 10. At the

randomly selected points, methane flux was could not be
detected. The distribution of the methane flux in phase 1 of
the Nam Son landfill (Fig. 4) indicted that the emission
points that showed both efflux and influx were located
around the edge of the landfill and were not present on the
plain top surface. The highest flux in this area was 150 ml/
min/m2, and there were high-flux points in the range of 15
37 ml/min/m2 around this highest flux point.
In cell 4 of the Nam Son landfill, 16 points were preliminarily chosen as candidates for methane emission, and
efflux was observed at 10 of them. One of the two points
that were randomly selected for the flux measurement also
showed an efflux of methane. The distribution of methane
flux in cell 4 of the Nam Son landfill site is shown in Fig. 5.
Large fluxes greater than 100 ml/min/m2 were detected on
the northern edge of the cell. These results indicated that
this site must still be in the active methanogenesis phase.

Kinetics of methane generation in waste landfill sites

in Hanoi
The results obtained in this study confirmed that the rate of
methane emissions decreased with increasing age of the

Fig. 4. Distribution of methane flux in phase 1 of Nam Son landfill

landfill. The waste disposed of in the three landfills was

mainly MSW, and its composition had not substantially
changed during the decades of their operation. Phase 1 and
cell 4 in the Nam Son landfill were excavated-type landfills
equipped with leachate, a gas discharge system, and a final
cover soil layer. Although the Tay Mo landfill was a pileup-type landfill, the waste layer and final coverage of soil
were sufficiently thick to ensure anaerobic conditions, as in
the Nam Son landfill. Therefore, the methane emission

0
200
180

50
19

770

160
290

140

92

100

150

80

250

330

-1.4
-0.45

193
6.7
-5.6

120
100

200

370

-2.7

14

-2.0

65

60
20

40
20

-1.1

-1.9

700
650
600
550
500
450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
-5 0

methane emission (106 m3/y)

171

3.5
3
2.5

TayMo
phase1
cell4

2
1.5
1
0.5
0
1995

2000

2005

2010

2015

Fig. 6. Estimation of annual methane emissions from waste landfills in

Hanoi using the first-order decay model

Fig. 5. Distribution of methane flux in cell 4 of Nam Son landfill

levels from the three landfills were assumed to be equivalent to the temporal changes that might be found at one
landfill site controlled in the same manner, and the methane
emission rates were kinetically analyzed. The fitting of the
estimated methane emissions of landfills (Table 4) to Eq. 2
suggested a first-order reaction rate of 0.51 (per year), i.e.,
a half-life (= 1/k) of 2.0 years. The IPCC3,4 has set a default
range of the half-life of landfill methane emissions at 47
years. This default value was estimated mainly from studies
on landfill monitoring in European and North American
countries. The differences in food customs, meteorological
conditions, waste management systems, and landfill structures might lead to the extensive decrease of methane emission in waste landfills in Hanoi. The newest IPCC guidelines15
adopt different approaches to the first-order decay equation
and set reaction rates of methane generation for each waste
component and for each climate zone. For example, the
reaction rate of rapidly degradable waste such as food waste
or sewage sludge in tropical and moist weather zones is
0.170.7/year.13 Since the reaction rate of methane emissions from landfills has rarely been reported, it is still difficult to evaluate the acceptable range.

methane emissions from each landfill is shown in Fig. 6. The

annual methane emissions were simply calculated using the
total emissions obtained by the field survey in this study and
were 1.1 105, 1.2 106, and 3.1 106 m3/year for the Tay
Mo landfill and phase 1 and cell 4 of the Nam Son landfill,
respectively. These estimates from field observations corresponded well with the estimates from the FOD model as
shown in Fig. 6. These results indicate that the statistical
analysis of waste treatment and the parameters for landfill
methane emissions obtained from the field survey were sufficiently reliable and could be applied in predicting methane
emissions in the landfills in Hanoi.
Reliable estimation of methane emissions from waste
landfills has often been quite difficult or nearly impossible
because of limited information on waste streams in the
peculiar circumstances of each country. This study revealed
that waste flow analysis of the quality and quantity of landfilled waste can provide a good estimation of methane emissions from landfills. Field investigations can support the
improvement of this estimation by establishing kinetic
parameters that depend on the site-specific characteristics
of the landfills.

Summary and future developments

Comparison of estimates and the measured methane
emission rates
The temporal changes in the amount of organic waste
deposited into landfills as shown in Table 3 was used to
estimate the methane emissions from landfills based on the
FOD model.4,15 It was assumed that the waste generated in
19971999 was deposited in the Tay Mo landfill, the waste
generated in 20002001 was deposited into phase 1 of the
Nam Son landfill, and the waste generated from 2002 to the
first half of 2004 was deposited into cell 4 of the Nam Son
landfill. The first-order reaction rate obtained above was
applied to this estimation. The DOC content was assumed
to be 0.17 for kitchen waste, 0.4 for paper and textiles, and
0.3 for wood.15 The waste composition shown in Table 2
allows the DOC content in the entire waste stream to be
calculated as 0.20. Using Eq. 2, the estimated amount of

This study aimed to propose a practical methodology for

estimating the methane emission behavior of waste landfills
in Vietnam, Hanoi, as a case study for Southeast Asian
urban areas. Precise prediction of methane emission must
be achieved by investigating the historical trends of disposal
of the organic waste into the landfill and from estimates of
region-specific parameters such as the first-order decay rate
of 0.51/year. Since waste management in Hanoi was relatively well controlled and documented information on waste
treatment and disposal was available, the additional survey
in this study was limited to interviews, investigation of the
waste composition, and field measurement of the methane
flux. A more intensive survey or investigation may be
needed in other cases, e.g., for a small or rural municipality
that does not completely govern and control the refuse collection, public health, and sanitation over its whole area. In

172

cases where the region- or site-specific information or

parameters are undefined, unavailable, or both, the quantitative or kinetic parameters obtained from other regions or
countries where situations could be considered analogous
might be applied to the subject region. From the viewpoint
of the reliability of estimates, estimation using nonspecific
parameters should be avoided as far as possible. At least,
we should establish a more theoretical tool that can extrapolate one case to others with similar situations such as
waste characteristics, waste management policy, or meteorological conditions. In this sense, we should continue to
establish area-, region-, or at least country-specific activity
and kinetic parameters on methane emission from landfills
in Southeast Asian countries in addition to the case of
Hanoi, Vietnam, executed in this study.
Acknowledgments Our research activity in Hanoi was conducted with
the full cooperation of the Hanoi Urban Environmental Company
(URENCO). We are greatly indebted to the Company for its overall
assistance. This study was supported by the Global Environmental
Research Coordination System of the Ministry of the Environment,
and the Core University Program between the Japan Society for the
Promotion of Science and the National Center for Natural Science and
Technology.

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