High-Level Project Summary
The Red Alert project monitors the emission of methane gas from landfills in the State of São Paulo, Brazil, through data made available by NASA satellites. For this, a website and a mobile app was created that identifies landfills that are emitting a high concentration of methane gas then sending notification to the population and to the Government, whose obligation would be to place there biofilters as a solution, composed of methanotrophic bacteria that oxidize the methane gas, generating carbon dioxide and water, hence decreasing the greenhouse effect duo to carbon dioxide being less harmful than methane gas. Thus benefiting the marginalized population with better air quality.
Link to Project "Demo"
Link to Final Project
Detailed Project Description
The problem of garbage dumped in inappropriate places is a challenge for the world, as well as for the State of São Paulo. This problem generates several losses for the population, especially for the marginalized population. Dumps and landfills generate a large amount of methane gas, which impairs air quality and enhances the greenhouse effect, after all, methane is the second most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas.
Methane is one of the contributing gases to what is called the greenhouse effect. Methane levels in the atmosphere have been steadily increasing for centuries, but even more so since the beginning of the industrial revolution. According to the IPCC (2001).
The methane is augmenting global warming because of its capability to retain heat at a rate of 21 times that of carbon dioxide within a 100 year time span. Methane concentrations within the atmosphere have increased at a rate of about 1% per year since 1978 and the amount of methane in the atmosphere has increased from 0.8 ppm to 1.7 ppm since the year 1800. Because of its ability to retain infrared radiation, methane, on a molar basis, is 20 to 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. Methane has become a target for emissions reduction due to its relatively short decay time in the atmosphere, 9 to 10 years, and its higher effectiveness as a greenhouse gas. Around 12% of worldwide methane emissions are caused by the decomposition of waste within landfills.
To alleviate this problem, biofilters would be installed in landfills, with the objective of reducing the emission of methane gas. The mechanism of methane oxidation involves the use of methanotrophic bacteria to transform methane into water, carbon dioxide, and biomass. These methanotrophic bacteria and the amount of methane they can oxidize may be affected by a variety of elements including methane availability, oxygen availability, pressure gradients, temperature, and condition and type of methanotrophic media. However, the fraction oxidized, of methane, has been reported to be in the range of 47% to 95%.
Therefore, a website and a mobile app will be created, called Future Alert, which will monitor areas that are emitting high levels of methane gas, through NASA satellites, together with image satellites, and will send an alert and notification to the population and to the government.
After notification, the government will be in charge of implementing the biofilter system that can be inspected by the population if it was really done, because through the website will be possible to see if there has been a change in the emission of methane gas.
The benefits with this solution will be for the general population, but mainly for the marginalized population that lives near landfills. This solution will improve air quality, as methane gas is toxic to health, so people who live close to these places will benefit greatly and will have a better quality of life, in addition to giving greater visibility to these regions marginalized. The population in general will benefit from the reduction in the emission of one of the most harmful gases for the greenhouse effect. In addition, the Red Alert serves as a source of knowledge about the risks of inappropriate disposal and the inappropriate location for this waste deposit, thus generating awareness among the entire population. After all, there are no environmental problems, there are only environmental symptoms of human problems.
Space Agency Data
Hackathon Journey
The experience with Hackaton was quite intense, with a lot of learning and many challenges. It was possible to learn to work under pressure and in a short time, but it was also possible to learn many tools and varied subjects, especially in our case about methane gas and its harms. To develop this project a lot of teamwork was necessary. As much as we had setbacks and challenges, Hackaton was an amazing experience.
References
Mitigation of Landfill Methane Emissions from Passive Vents by Use of Oxidizing Biofilter
Tags
#futurealert
Global Judging
This project has been submitted for consideration during the Judging process.