Constructed Wetlands and Landfills for Energy Harvesting in KSA- Sustainability and Opportunities
Saidur R. CHOWDHURY, Sani I. ABBA
Abstract. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) experiences problems in its quest to increase its renewable energy production due to its expansive desert terrain, and the basis of their economy being energy-driven. The issues are to regulate the rising quantity of waste production and decrease the carbon footprints, and use renewable energy resources. Considering a variety of industrial and environmental environment of Saudi Arabia, constructed wetlands (CWs) and landfills (LFs) present promising (but unexplored) opportunities in extracting energy. This paper has discussed the potential and the sustainability of utilizing LFs and CWs as possible sustainable sources of energy in the Kingdom. CWs, in their natural processes of treatment, can be significant in wastewater treatment and contribute to the bioenergy generation, including biogas (CH4), thus countering the pollution of the environment. Moreover, engineered LFs give another energy recovery through methane trapping, and hence a significant decrease in the emission of greenhouse gases. This study is based on the technological, economic, and environmental viability of the processes in Saudi Arabia as part of the sustainability objectives of the Saudi Arabian Vision 2030. It underlines the synergy of waste management, water conservation, and renewable energy.
Keywords
Landfills, Wetlands, Methane, Energy, Emission, Sustainability
Published online 4/25/2026, 7 pages
Copyright © 2026 by the author(s)
Published under license by Materials Research Forum LLC., Millersville PA, USA
Citation: Saidur R. CHOWDHURY, Sani I. ABBA, Constructed Wetlands and Landfills for Energy Harvesting in KSA- Sustainability and Opportunities, Materials Research Proceedings, Vol. 64, pp 1147-1153, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644904091-141
The article was published as article 141 of the book Energy Futures
Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
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