Brazil has established a strong public policy using Clean Development Mechanism Projects to reduce methane emissions from landfills. An important component of these projects is the sale of avoided emissions by the private market to generate revenue.
Introduction Faced with serious pollution challenges, Brazil established public policy that would create incentives for the foreign and national private market to invest financial, technological, and human resources in the country. The premise is that experienced companies would bring their technology to Brazil, in an effort to reduce methane gas emissions. The specific technology and projects discussed in this article refer to landfill gas projects. Although this technology was new to Brazil in the early 2000s when companies first began implementing them, these methods were not new to Europe or North America. Additionally, Brazil is just one of many countries participating in similar projects around the world.
Background Brazil signed the Kyoto Protocol on April 29, 1998, and ratified it on August 23, 2002. To date, Brazil has 347 clean development mechanism (CDM) projects, which account for 7.3% of the total projects worldwide. Estimated projections by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) show that by 2012, Brazil will have 102 million certified emission reductions (CER), a $1,225 million value. Unlike its fellow BRIC countries, in Brazil the largest component of potential CER projects is landfill gas projects, with a 31.3% share. According to the national survey on basic sanitation (PNSB) conducted in 2008, all of the 5,564 municipalities have access to basic sanitation. According to the Environmental Sanitation Technology Company (CETESB) study, the 6,000 waste sites in Brazil receive 60,000 tonnes of waste per day. Seventy-six percent (76%) of this waste goes to dumps with no management, gas collection, or water treatment. This same study showed that 83.18% of Brazil's methane gas emissions come from uncontrolled waste sites.
Landfill gas projects Private companies have submitted CDM projects to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to use landfill gas (LFG) discharges from waste management sites to earn carbon credits or CER. There are over 100 LFG CDM projects in Brazil. The diagram below illustrates the process.
First, once the waste management company has developed the landfill with the new technology, (1a) it calculates how much methane (CH4) would have been emitted into the air without its intervention. (1b) Then it converts the CH4 into carbon equivalents (C02e). (2a) Next, the company projects how much methane it expects to emit into the air, with the new technology. Again, (2b) it converts the CH4 into C02e. (3) Next, the company determines the avoided emissions or CER but subtracting the emission projections with the technology from the baseline emissions without the technology. (4) Once credited, the company sells the CER through a broker to companies that will produce emissions greater than their allotted capacity.
SASA The SASA landfill is located in Tremembé in São Paulo State of Brazil. Onyx SASA is a subsidiary of Veolia Environnement and is an officially registered project with UNFCCC, as of November 24, 2005. SenterNovem, an agency of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs in the Netherlands, is a partner in the project. The following flow chart depicts the process used by the landfill:
(1) Methane (CH4) or carbon equivalents (CO2e) are captured by the vertical wells. (2) Next, a horizontal drain that is connected to the vertical wells extracts the CO2e. (3) Then, a high density collection pipe captures the CO2e and transfers it to the evaporator. (4) Any CO2e that did not evaporate, is transferred to an enclosed flare. (5) The remaining emissions are then vented into the air.
At the filing of the report, Onyx SASA anticipated the landfill would accrue 700,625 tons CO2e from 2003 through 2012 in CER. As of 2011, Onyx SASA has filed monitoring reports for the periods of 2003 through 2007. The following chart outlines the actual CER realized to date:
Additionally, the project design report states Onyx SASA expects to revegetate and reforest the land; upon fulfillment, 150,000 trees will be planted around the landfill.
Paulínia
Empresa de Saneamento e Tratamento de Resíduos (ESTRE) is a private waste management Brazilian-based company, founded in 1999. ESTRE operates seven sites in Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina. It offers waste management services, including recycling and landfills, to private companies and the government. The Paulínia Landfill Gas Project (EPLGP) is located in Campinas in São Paulo State of Brazil. The project was registered on March 3, 2006, with UNFCCC.
The goal of the EPLGP is to reduce greenhouse emissions. The following schematic illustrates the process of capturing and recycling the gas emissions:
As illustrated above, (1) wells installed in the landfill collect the methane (CH4). (2) Next, high density pipes connected to the wells transfer the CH4 to the blower. (3) Any remaining CH4 is then sent to the flare. (4) Last, the CH4 is flared into the air.
The following table outlines the forecasted and actual yearly outputs of CER according to the monitoring reports filed with UNFCCC:
^The notable increase in actual CER versus the projected CER is due to the increase in waste received by the landfill, from 2.5 tons per day as reported in the CDM application to 5 tons per day.
Legislation: National Policy on Climate Change After Brazil's Congress passed the climate change legislation, on December 29, 2009, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed the National Policy on Climate Change (PNMC). The law requires Brazil to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 38.9% by 2020. On December 9, 2010, President Lula signed a decree which details the provisions of PNMC. At its foundation, PNMC focuses on prevention, citizen participation, and sustainable development.
Law N° 12.187 of 2009 There are 13 articles in the legislation:
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