Gas generation as a function of leachate management: Mid Auchencarroch experimental landfill
- Univ. of Strathclyde (United Kingdom). Dept. of Civil Engineering
- Environment Agency, London (United Kingdom)
Sustainable development is becoming a goal within most of the developed world. In terms of waste management, and specifically landfill, the goal is to progress the waste mass to a non-polluting state, within the relatively short period of 30--50 years. The flushing bioreactor landfill is seen potentially as a method of achieving this goal. The second experimental landfill at the Mid Auchencarroch Landlab facility builds on the success and experience gained on the first site, completed some three years ago. Phase 2 of Mid Auchencarroch Landlab seeks to evaluate methods of managing and controlling the biodegradation processes of landfilled municipal solid waste (MSW). The US$ 500,000 experiment, financed by the landfill industry and UK government research funds, comprises four cells each containing approximately 4000 tonnes of MSW. The main variables of this experiment are pre-treatment of waste by wet pulverization, leachate recirculation at optimum rates, and co-disposal of inert materials with MSW. The manipulation of the moisture regime within the landfill is seen as a key control parameter. Leachate recirculation, via a novel sub cap irrigation system, seeks to develop the concept of the flushing bioreactor, in which the aims of recirculation are not only to homogenize moisture content in order to enhance degradation, but further to flush soluble pollutants from the waste mass. The project moved into the monitoring stage in November 1995, when the cells were capped. A comprehensive regime of data collection operates, including full time gas flow monitoring, with a new type of flowmeter specifically developed for landfill gas. Thus, results presented are both quantitative and qualitative, and in the future will attempt to put a meaningful time scale on landfill gas production curves under various controlling regimes.
- OSTI ID:
- 353661
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-970677--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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