Effect of Waste Composition and Load Application on the Biodegradation of Municipal Solid Waste in Bioreactor Landfills
Publication: Practice Periodical of Hazardous, Toxic, and Radioactive Waste Management
Volume 13, Issue 3
Abstract
Intensive research has focused on the biodegradation of the typical municipal solid waste in bioreactor landfills, but relatively little attention has been given to the biodegradability of individual refuse components. The objective of this paper is to examine and compare the degree of biodegradation of different waste fractions, textile, paper, and mixed waste, through measuring the change in the physical properties and settlement characteristics of waste and leachate quality, in six bench-scale bioreactor landfills operated under anaerobic conditions. Also, the impact caused by waste density increase in the form of subsequent waste layers on the same bioreactors is investigated. Two groups of bench-scale anaerobic bioreactor landfills operated for . The first group was designed to study the anaerobic biodegradability, leachate quality, change in physical properties, and settlement of textile, paper, and mixed waste. The second group operated with the addition of of load per cell to represent the overburden stresses provided by subsequent layers of waste. Mixed cells achieved about four times total wet weight reduction more than textile cells and about three times total wet weight reduction more than paper cells. Chemical oxygen demand, biological oxygen demand, volatile fatty acids, and total solids concentrations exhibited a classical peak in paper and mixed bioreactors followed by an asymptotic decline. Mixed waste experienced the highest settlement (27.2%) compared to paper and textile waste, which exhibited a maximum settlement of about 9.0%. Significant difference in the waste settlement between Group 1 (no load application) and Group 2 (load application and higher waste density) was noted. However, increasing waste density had a small effect on the leachate quality and the physical properties of waste.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The writers would like to thank the Egyptian Bureau of Cultural and Educational Affairs for providing the financial assistance for this research. They are grateful for the assistance of Mr. Robin Luong and Mr. Dennis Peneff.
References
Ağdağ, O. N., and Sponza, D. T. (2005). “Effect of alkalinity on the performance of a simulated landfill bioreactor digesting organic solid wastes.” Chemosphere, 59(6), 871–879.
Alkaabi, S. (2007). “Effect of salinity on biodegradation of MSW in bioreactor landfills.” Ph.D. thesis, Carleton Univ., Ottawa, Ont., Canada.
Al-Yousfi, B., and Pohland, F. (1998). “Strategies for simulation, design and management of solid wastes disposal sites as landfill bioreactors.” Pract. Period. Hazard. Toxic Radioact. Waste Manage., 2(1), 13–21.
American Public Health Association (APHA). (1998). Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater, 20th Ed., Washington, D.C.
Boni, R. M., and Musmeci, L. (1998). “Organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW): Extent of biodegradation.” Waste Manage. Res., 16(2), 103–107.
Buivid, M. A., Boyd, W. F., and Parcy, J. G. (1981). “Fuel gas enhancement by controlled landfilling of municipal solid waste.” Resources and Conservation, 3, 3–20.
Eleazer, W. E., Odle, W. S., Wang, Y. S., and Barlaz, M. A. (1997). “Biodegradability of municipal solid waste components in laboratory-scale landfills.” Environ. Sci. Technol., 31(3), 911–917.
Hilger, H. H., and Barlaz, M. A. (2000). “Anaerobic decomposition of refuse in landfills and methane oxidation in landfill cover soils.” Manual of environmental microbiology, 2nd Ed., American Society of microbiology, Washington, D.C.
Jin, H., and Warith, M. (2006). “Biodegradation of high moisture and organic content solid waste in bioreactor landfills.” Annual General Conf. of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering.
Ress, B. B., Calvert, P. P., Pettigrew, C. A., and Barlaz, M. A. (1998). “Testing anaerobic biodegrability of polymers in a laboratory-scale simulated landfill.” Environ. Sci. Technol., 32(6), 821–827.
Rhew, R., and Barlaz, M. A. (1995). “The effect of lime stabilized sludge as a cover material on anaerobic refuse decomposition.” J. Environ. Eng., 121(7), 499–506.
Sah, R. (2006). “Stabilization of paper waste in bioreactor landfills using soybean peroxidase enzymes.” Master’s dissertation, Ryerson Univ., Toronto.
Statistics Canada—Canada’s National Statistical Agency. (2006). Human activity and the environment: Annual statistics, Ottawa, Ont., Canada.
Venelampi, O., Weber, A., Rönkkö, T., and Itävaara, M. (2003). “The biodegradation and disintegration of paper products in the composting environment.” Compost Science and Utilization, 11(3), 200–209.
Warith, M. (2002). “Bioreactor landfills: Experimental and field results.” Waste Manage., 22(1), 7–17.
Warith, M., and Sharma, R. (1998). “Technical review of methods to enhance biological degradation in sanitary landfill.” Water Qual. Res. J. Canada, 33(3), 417–437.
Yuen, S. T. S. (2001). “Bioreactor landfills: Do they work?” Proc., 2nd ANZ Conf. on Environmental Geotechnics, Newcastle, Australia.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2009 ASCE.
History
Received: Apr 14, 2008
Accepted: Oct 29, 2008
Published online: Jun 15, 2009
Published in print: Jul 2009
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.