Climate Action Reserve Issue Paper Aerobic and Anaerobic Bioreactor Project Protocol Prepared By: Science Applications International Corporation December 19, 2011 Issue Paper: Anaerobic Bioreactors and In Situ Composting Prepared for the Climate Action Reserve by SAIC Table of Contents List of Tables ................................................................................................................................................. 4 List of Figures ................................................................................................................................................ 4 Acronyms ...................................................................................................................................................... 5 1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 7 2 Background ........................................................................................................................................... 9 2.1 Landfill Emissions .......................................................................................................................... 9 2.2 Reserve Project Protocols in the Waste Sector .......................................................................... 11 2.3 Opportunity and Objective ......................................................................................................... 12 2.3.1 Bioreactor Landfill Management Philosophy ...................................................................... 12 2.4 Bioreactor Design ........................................................................................................................ 15 2.4.1 Aerobic Bioreactors ............................................................................................................. 17 2.4.2 Anaerobic Bioreactors ......................................................................................................... 18 2.4.3 Hybrid Bioreactor ................................................................................................................ 19 2.5 Precedent Protocols .................................................................................................................... 20 3 Market Drivers, Project Viability, and Environmental Co-Benefits ..................................................... 22 3.1 Unique Benefits of Bioreactors ................................................................................................... 22 3.2 Unique Risks of Bioreactors ........................................................................................................ 26 3.3 Opportunity and Implementation Considerations ..................................................................... 29 4 Additionality ........................................................................................................................................ 32 4.1 Legal Requirements Test ............................................................................................................. 32 4.1.1 Legal Requirements Test for Anaerobic Bioreactors .......................................................... 33 4.1.2 Legal Requirements Test for Aerobic Bioreactors .............................................................. 34 4.2 Performance Standard ................................................................................................................ 37 4.2.1 Implications of Bioreactor Incentives on Eligibility Determination .................................... 39 5 Quantification and Supporting Monitoring ........................................................................................ 46 5.1 Existing Protocol Resources ........................................................................................................ 46 5.1.1 Reserve Landfill Protocol .................................................................................................... 46 5.2 Temporal Considerations Related to Baseline Emissions ........................................................... 47 5.3 Precedent for Calculating Baseline Emissions ............................................................................ 51 5.3.1 Alberta Quantification Protocol for Aerobic Projects .......................................................... 51 5.3.2 CDM AM 0083: Avoidance of landfill gas emissions by in-situ aeration of landfills ........... 52 5.3.3 Reserve Organic Waste Protocols ....................................................................................... 53 5.4 Options for Modeling Baseline Emissions ................................................................................... 53 5.4.1 Uncertainty ......................................................................................................................... 57 5.5 Precedent for Calculating Project Emissions .............................................................................. 58 5.5.1 Alberta Quantification Protocol for Aerobic Projects .......................................................... 59 5.5.2 CDM AM 0083: Avoidance of landfill gas emissions by in-situ aeration of landfills ........... 59 5.6 Calculating Project Emissions for Aerobic Bioreactors ............................................................... 60 5.6.1 Surface Emission Factor Methods ....................................................................................... 61 5.6.2 Mass Flux Methods ............................................................................................................. 63 2 Issue Paper: Anaerobic Bioreactors and In Situ Composting Prepared for the Climate Action Reserve by SAIC 6 Additional Protocol Considerations and Conclusions ......................................................................... 67 6.1 Interaction with Existing Reserve Protocols ............................................................................... 67 6.2 Temporal Crediting Fidelity ......................................................................................................... 67 6.3 Additional Crediting Periods ....................................................................................................... 70 6.4 Defining the Project as a Single Cell or Entire Landfill ................................................................ 70 6.5 Market Potential ......................................................................................................................... 71 7 Conclusions ......................................................................................................................................... 72 8 References .......................................................................................................................................... 74 9 List of Preparers .................................................................................................................................. 78 3 Issue Paper: Anaerobic Bioreactors and In Situ Composting Prepared for the Climate Action Reserve by SAIC List of Tables Table 1: Material Composition of Municipal Solid Waste, 2009. Waste materials shaded in green represent organically decomposable products. ......................................................................................... 10 Table 2: Summary of the Use of Reserve Protocols in the Solid Waste Sector .......................................... 12 Table 3: Definitions of a Bioreactor Landfill ................................................................................................ 13 Table 4: Active North American Bioreactor Landfills .................................................................................. 16 Table 5: Benefits of Aerobic and Anaerobic Bioreactor Systems ............................................................... 25 Table 6: Risks and Drawbacks of Aerobic and Anaerobic Bioreactor Systems ........................................... 29 Table 7: Landfill scenarios modeled by Berge, et al. for cost-benefit analysis (reproduced from Berge, 2009) ........................................................................................................................................................... 39 Table 8: Landfill design and base case parameters and conditions (reproduced from Berge et al., 2009) 40 Table 9. Cost and Benefit Data for Three Leachate Recirculating Landfills (costs rounded to $1,000). .... 43 Table 10: Baseline, project, and emission reductions for aerobic and anaerobic bioreactors quantified according to assumptions in the current landfill protocol, relative to traditional landfill ......................... 47 Table 11: Overview of monitored parameters in both project phases. Table reproduced from UNFCCC CDM AM 0083. ............................................................................................................................................ 60 Table 12: Summary of Emission Testing Methods ...................................................................................... 66 List of Figures Figure 1: Design of Common Aerobic Bioreactor System (Graphic developed by Waste Management, Inc. and retrieved from US EPA) ........................................................................................................................ 17 Figure 2: Design of Common Anaerobic Bioreactor System (Graphic developed by Waste Management, Inc. and retrieved from US EPA) ................................................................................................................