The federal government and Environment Canada is lending its support to a Cambridge company dedicated at tackling methane pollution from garbage dumps and municipal landfills.
Cambridge MP, Bryan May announced the $49,748 grant to Comcor Environmental Limited on Monday for their work with identifying and measuring methane exposure from waste sites.
"Canada is quickly becoming a leader in environmental technology, and our investment in Comcor Environmental Limited is a major step forward," said May. "I'm proud to see Cambridge taking the lead in developing the technologies that will help fight climate change, reduce Canada's greenhouse emissions and create jobs that will continue to promote and develop our community's place in the growing climate economy."
Methane is a key driver of climate change according to experts. Climate scientists suggest that significantly reducing methane emissions across all sectors could avoid 0.3 degrees Celsius of warming by 2050. Municipal solid waste landfills are responsible for almost one quarter of Canada’s methane emissions.
Methane is a greenhouse gas generated when biodegradable waste is sent to landfills. Cutting methane emissions from all sources, including landfills, is one of the fastest and most cost-effective ways to combat climate change, according to the federal government.
The funding will help Comcor identify methane surface emissions and compare field method approaches and detectors at three Canadian landfills.
"Comcor Environmental Limited, in cooperation with the City of London, County of Oxford, the City of Winnipeg and SkyDeploy, is initiating a study that will involve the measurement of fugitive methane surface emissions from 3 Canadian landfills," said Denise Burgess, director of engineering for Comcor.
"This innovative study, being funded by the Federal Government under an initiative to reduce methane landfill emissions, will use both walking surveys and drones with laser and thermal imaging technologies to measure surface emissions."
Emerging drone-based monitoring technologies for landfill methane emissions and automated management systems present an opportunity to make leak detection and management easier and more effective.
The funding will also help secure the drones and implement thermal detection of landfills to gauge how much methane is being released and identify problem areas.
Methane emissions from landfills vary over time due to various factors, including barometric pressure, operational practices and equipment malfunctions.
Detecting and repairing leaks as quickly as possible and making adjustments to optimize landfill gas recovery systems are important to help reduce emissions.
These initiatives will help landfill operators by evaluating the performance of these emerging technologies, identifying the benefits and barriers to their adoption, and providing examples of how these approaches can be implemented.
Ultimately, these projects will support Canada's waste sector to reduce methane emissions from Canadian landfills.
