Abstract—South Africa's continued reliance on coal-fired electricity generation, together with rising municipal solid waste volumes, highlights the need for integrated energy and waste management solutions. This study evaluates the future methane generation and electricity production potential of the Robinson Deep Phase 1 landfill extension in Johannesburg. Landfill design parameters, projected waste acceptance rates, and operational lifespans were obtained from the Draft Scoping Report and applied within the Landfill Gas Emissions Model to estimate methane generation. Electricity output was calculated assuming a landfill gas collection efficiency of 75% and an electrical conversion efficiency of 33%. The 2 new landfill cells could recover approximately 35 to 40 million cubic meters of methane, generating about 70 to 75 gigawatt-hours of electricity. This output is energy-equivalent to approximately 40,000 tons of South African bituminous coal, assuming a representative coal-fired power plant efficiency of 33%, equivalent to approximately 1.7 to 1.9 megawatt-hours per ton of coal.
Keywords—landfill gas-to-energy, methane, renewable energy, coal displacement, Robinson deep landfill, Johannesburg
Cite: Malillane Lillane and Khomotso Semenya, "Energy Generation Potential from Landfill Gas Generated by the New Cells at the Robinson Deep Landfill Site in Johannesburg ," International Journal of Environmental Science and Development vol. 17, no. 5, pp. 427-437, 2026.
Copyright © 2026 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).