Abstract
Landfilling of municipal solid waste (MSW) is a common waste management practice in municipalities of developing countries, including Cameroon, but contributes significantly to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and climate change. However, methane gas generated can be turned into renewable energy through waste-to-energy processes and address the energy demands simultaneously. In Cameroon, there is no data on the gas capacity of the Nkolfoulou landfill in Yaound & eacute;. This paper evaluates landfill gas, methane, and energy capacities at the Nkolfoulou sanitary landfill. It also investigates waste composition and the benefits of GHG emission reduction. A waste-to-energy method, namely, sanitary landfills, is used to assess the energy potential from MSW under three scenarios. Methane gas was estimated with the LandGEM model v3.03 using the determined values of the methane generation constant and potential methane generation capacity. The results demonstrated that the total methane gas generated represents 50% of the landfill gas from 1990 to 2030, with a peak methane generation of 7.482x1007\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$7.482 \times 10<^>{07}$$\end{document} m3/year in 2030. The electricity that could be generated from that landfill in 2030 is estimated at 155.26 GWh and would contribute to 11% of Yaound & eacute; City's overall electricity demands. Among the three scenarios proposed, landfill gas-to-energy technology has the potential to reduce GHG emissions by an average of 72% significantly compared to the literature. These findings provide for the first time the energy potential, and waste composition of the Nkolfoulou landfill, and its GHG emissions, and align with results from Nigeria with the same method, and other East African countries.