LAHORE: The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has placed the Lahore landfill site’s methane-to-natural gas & reducing carbon emission project on its top priority.

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A detailed feasibility of the project titled “Valorization of Lakhodair Landfill Emissions into Valuable Carbon Credits” would be launched soon, says Chief Executive Officer of the Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) Babar Sahib Din.

“It is a good news that this project is now a top priority of the UNEP which will help us launch this by providing consultancy in designing the project using latest technology,” Mr Din told Dawn on Sunday.

“It is the first carbon financing project in Pakistan that will really help in converting the most dangerous methane gas to natural gas, reducing carbon emissions and earning carbon credits worth millions of dollars,” he added.

First carbon financing plan in Pakistan to help in converting methane to natural gas

The methane gas has 56 times of global warming potential for 20 years and 21 times for 100 years more than carbon dioxide (CO2). The gas vents installed at the dumpsite are releasing approximately 1cubic metre gas in 24 hours which is almost equal to eight kg CO2/day and 2,920 kg CO2/year.

Comprising over 200 acres amid 70 acres sanitary landfill area and controlled dumpsite, the Lakhodair site receive almost 5,000 tonnes of solid waste and its remaining expected life will end in next two to three years.

This landfill site produced 5,598 metric tonnes of methane (CH4) and 15,434 MT Carbon Dioxide (CO2) in 2015, , followed by 11591 and 31,960 MT in 2016, 17,715 and 48,847 MT in 2017, 31,271 and 86,226 MT in 2018, 41,886 and 11,5491 MT in 2019, 51,525 and 14,2071 MT in 2020, 59,463 and 163,961 MT in 2021, 67,865 and 187,126 MT in 2022 and 76,558 and 211,085 MT in 2023. The total methane emissions (landGem) from 2015 to 2023 were recorded as 363,472 MT.

“These represent the baseline, project, or leakage methane emissions occurring in year, generated from waste disposal at Solid Waste Disposal Site (SWDS) during a time period ending in year.

The emissions are measured in metric tons of CO2 equivalent per year,“ reads an internal report. It states that capturing of over 3.2 million carbon credits have been assessed during the period from 2024 to 2053.

The total cost of the project has initially been estimated above Rs7 billion.

The LWMC CEO said that since the pre-feasibility of the project has already been carried out, the detailed one would soon be launched.

Sharing details, he further said the money received through earning carbon credits by reducing emissions would be distributed between the client (LWMC) and the contracting firm under an agreed sharing formula. However, the natural gas received after conversion from methane, which has less energy content, would be completely owned by the LWMC.

“But we cannot tell you about the quantity of the gas we will have finally after conversion process since we would know it after having a detailed feasibility,” he maintained.

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2024