Design and Set Up of a Laboratory Scale Aerobic Landfill Bioreactor
DESIGN AND SET UP OF A LABORATORY SCALE AEROBIC
LANDFILL BIOREACTOR
G. Makripodis, F. Simantiraki, M. Somara, E. Gidarakos
Laboratory of Toxic and Hazardous Waste Management, Department of Environmental
Engineering
Technical University of Crete, Polytechneioupolis, Chania 73100, Greece
ABSTRACT
The complexity of landfills, as well as the practical and health-related issues generated, demands special laboratory and modelling approaches as the first line of in situ landfill investigations. The approaches to date include literature reviews, design and construction of full scale landfill bioreactors and modelling of biodegradation processes for numerical simulation. Currently, landfills require specific liners at the bottom to capture leachate and impermeable caps at the top to limit infiltration. As a result, landfills are considered "dry tombs," (i.e., anaerobic and dry), with relatively slow biodegradation rates of the organic fraction of the waste and significant production of methane. An alternative approach in accelerating biodegradation and eliminating methane is aerobic bioremediation of landfills.
In aerobic bioremediation, air and leachate are injected into the solid waste, resulting in relatively fast aerobic biodegradation and no methane production. At the same time, the compaction rate is enhanced (U.S. EPA, 2002).
The purpose of this research is to determine the critical physical, chemical and biological processes that control aerobic landfill bioremediation. The research is directed at understanding the process of aerobic landfill bioremediation so that optimal engineering designs can be developed. In a 340 L tank filled with 70 kg of fresh solid waste, parameters like BOD, COD, pH, conductivity, anions and heavy metals have been measured for 14 months. The waste is subjected to various combinations of leachate recirculation along with air injection. The bioreactor is instrumented for temperature, moisture content and density,
LANDFILL BIOREACTOR
G. Makripodis, F. Simantiraki, M. Somara, E. Gidarakos
Laboratory of Toxic and Hazardous Waste Management, Department of Environmental
Engineering
Technical University of Crete, Polytechneioupolis, Chania 73100, Greece
ABSTRACT
The complexity of landfills, as well as the practical and health-related issues generated, demands special laboratory and modelling approaches as the first line of in situ landfill investigations. The approaches to date include literature reviews, design and construction of full scale landfill bioreactors and modelling of biodegradation processes for numerical simulation. Currently, landfills require specific liners at the bottom to capture leachate and impermeable caps at the top to limit infiltration. As a result, landfills are considered "dry tombs," (i.e., anaerobic and dry), with relatively slow biodegradation rates of the organic fraction of the waste and significant production of methane. An alternative approach in accelerating biodegradation and eliminating methane is aerobic bioremediation of landfills.
In aerobic bioremediation, air and leachate are injected into the solid waste, resulting in relatively fast aerobic biodegradation and no methane production. At the same time, the compaction rate is enhanced (U.S. EPA, 2002).
The purpose of this research is to determine the critical physical, chemical and biological processes that control aerobic landfill bioremediation. The research is directed at understanding the process of aerobic landfill bioremediation so that optimal engineering designs can be developed. In a 340 L tank filled with 70 kg of fresh solid waste, parameters like BOD, COD, pH, conductivity, anions and heavy metals have been measured for 14 months. The waste is subjected to various combinations of leachate recirculation along with air injection. The bioreactor is instrumented for temperature, moisture content and density,