Abstract
In this study, the concentrations of reduced S compounds (including hydrogen sulfide (H$_2$S); methyl mercaptan ($CH_3$SH); dimethyl sulfide (($CH_3$)$_2$S); carbon disulfide (CS$_2$); and dimethyl disulfide (($CH_3$)$_2$S$_2$) were determined from landfill gas (LFG) in three municipal landfill sites in the two cities of Gwang Ju (GJ) and Jeju (JJ), Korea. The S gas concentrations measured in these landfill sites were found to be dominated by H$_2$S with its mean concentration of 850 ppm from 10 LFG samples. Both absolute and relative dominance of H$_2$S was seen to be significant in most LFG samples, except those collected from very old and inactive landfills. Unlike the pattern of H$_2$S, other S gases were typically observed at much reduced concentration levels (a few ppm or less) as follows: DMS (3.5); $CH_3$SH (1.3); CS$_2$(1.2); and DMDS (0.02 ppm). If compared equally in mass concentration unit (mg m$^{-3}$ ), H$_2$S generally explained far above 90% of all S gas masses determined concurrently. Moreover, as its mass concentration commonly exceeds those of the major aromatic VOC components in LFG (like benzene and toluene), it appeared to be one of the most dominant gaseous components emitted as LFG in a quantitative sense.