Long-Term Numerical Simulation of Methane Transport and Oxidation in Compost Biofilter
Publication: Practice Periodical of Hazardous, Toxic, and Radioactive Waste Management
Volume 13, Issue 3
Abstract
A -thick biofilter was constructed with compost, which was obtained from Leon County Landfill (Florida). The compost was sieved with mesh sieve. The compost consisted of chipped yard waste that was windrowed for about . Methane was then continuously supplied to the bottom of the biofilter, simultaneously the outflow of methane from the top and the extent of methane oxidation inside the biofilter were periodically measured. A one-dimensional dynamic numerical simulation model was then developed to simulate the methane transport and oxidation within a compost biofilter. This model was designed to incorporate dynamic parameters, such as gas permeability, diffusion coefficient, methanotrophic growth, and viscosity, as functions of water content and temperature. General agreement of methane outflux and oxidation was obtained between model simulations and experimental data. Additional simulations showed that outflux and oxidation had high correlations with temperature, whereas their relationship with water content depended on other factors, such as the influx boundary and the air-filled porosity.
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Acknowledgments
Financial support for this study was provided by the Florida Center for Solid and Hazardous Waste Management, the National Science Foundation (Grant No. NSF0093677), and Waste Management, Inc.
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Published In
Practice Periodical of Hazardous, Toxic, and Radioactive Waste Management
Volume 13 • Issue 3 • July 2009
Pages: 196 - 202
Copyright
© 2009 ASCE.
History
Received: Oct 25, 2007
Accepted: Oct 2, 2008
Published online: Jun 15, 2009
Published in print: Jul 2009
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