Greenhouse gas emissions from landfill leachate treatment plants: A comparison of young and aged landfill

Journal Article · Tue Jul 15 04:00:00 EDT 2014 · Waste Management

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/J.WASMAN.2014.02.004· OSTI ID:22443573

Wang, Xiaojun ^[1]; Jia, Mingsheng ^[1]; Chen, Xiaohai ^[2]; Xu, Ying ^[1]; Lin, Xiangyu ^[1]; Chen, Shaohua ^[1]

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1. Key Laboratory of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021 (China)
2. Xiamen City Environmental Sanitation Management Department, Xiamen 361000 (China)

Highlights: • Young and aged leachate works accounted for 89.1% and 10.9% of 33.35 Gg CO{sub 2} yr{sup −1}. • Fresh leachate owned extremely low ORP and high organic matter content. • Strong CH{sub 4} emissions occurred in the fresh leachate ponds, but small in the aged. • N{sub 2}O emissions became dominant in the treatment units of both systems. • 8.45–11.9% of nitrogen was removed as the form of N{sub 2}O under steady-state. - Abstract: With limited assessment, leachate treatment of a specified landfill is considered to be a significant source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In our study, the cumulative GHG emitted from the storage ponds and process configurations that manage fresh or aged landfill leachate were investigated. Our results showed that strong CH{sub 4} emissions were observed from the fresh leachate storage pond, with the fluxes values (2219–26,489 mg C m{sup −2} h{sup −1}) extremely higher than those of N{sub 2}O (0.028–0.41 mg N m{sup −2} h{sup −1}). In contrast, the emission values for both CH{sub 4} and N{sub 2}O were low for the aged leachate tank. N{sub 2}O emissions became dominant once the leachate entered the treatment plants of both systems, accounting for 8–12% of the removal of N-species gases. Per capita, the N{sub 2}O emission based on both leachate treatment systems was estimated to be 7.99 g N{sub 2}O–N capita{sup −1} yr{sup −1}. An increase of 80% in N{sub 2}O emissions was observed when the bioreactor pH decreased by approximately 1 pH unit. The vast majority of carbon was removed in the form of CO{sub 2}, with a small portion as CH{sub 4} (<0.3%) during both treatment processes. The cumulative GHG emissions for fresh leachate storage ponds, fresh leachate treatment system and aged leachate treatment system were 19.10, 10.62 and 3.63 Gg CO{sub 2} eq yr{sup −1}, respectively, for a total that could be transformed to 9.09 kg CO{sub 2} eq capita{sup −1} yr{sup −1}.

• OSTI ID: 22443573
• Journal Information: Waste Management, Journal Name: Waste Management Journal Issue: 7 Vol. 34; ISSN WAMAE2; ISSN 0956-053X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
AGING
CARBON DIOXIDE
GREENHOUSE GASES
LEACHATES
METHANE
NITROUS OXIDE
ORGANIC MATTER
PH VALUE
SANITARY LANDFILLS
STEADY-STATE CONDITIONS
STORAGE