The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommends ASTM D6866 as the standard for the determination of biogenic CO2 from municipal solid wastes and other mixed fuels (fuels with fossil and biomass inputs). Companies will be required to report their greenhouse gas inventories annually if they emit at least 25,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalent.
The EPA mandates that facilities with units that combust MSW should use ASTM Methods D6866-06a and D7459-08 to determine the relative proportions of biogenic and non-biogenic CO2 emissions.
Other pertinent excerpts from the EPA GHG protocol:
page 56405 – Perform the ASTM D7459-08 sampling and the ASTM D6866-08 analysis at least once in every calendar quarter in which MSW is combusted in the unit. Collect each gas sample during normal unit operating conditions while MSW is the only fuel being combusted for at least 24 consecutive hours or for as long as necessary to obtain a sample large enough to meet the specifications of ASTM D6866-08.
page 56406 – ASTM Methods D7459-08 and D6866-08 are used to determine the biogenic portion of the annual CO2 emissions from a unit that co-fires biogenic (other than MSW) and non-biogenic fuels.
The final EPA MRR is found in the EPA website.
Updated October 26, 2009
