Effect of pH on Methane Oxidation and Community Composition in Landfill Cover Soil
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 146, Issue 6
Abstract
Municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills are regarded as one of the major sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across the world. An innovative and sustainable biogeochemical cover system that consists of soil, biochar, and basic oxygen furnace (BOF) slag is being developed to mitigate fugitive landfill emissions such as methane (), carbon dioxide (), and hydrogen sulfide (). Biochar-amended soil can mitigate emissions by oxidizing with the help of methanotrophs (-consuming microorganisms), whereas BOF slag can mitigate and emissions by adsorption and various mineralogical reactions. However, BOF slag is highly alkaline in nature, with pH values usually above 12, and the effect of such high pH on the overall performance of biogeochemical cover system is not known. This study aims at investigating the effect of pH on oxidation and methanotrophic community structure in landfill cover soil and cultivated consortia through laboratory incubation experiments. In this regard, soil suspension and enrichment cultures were incubated at pH values ranging from 2 to 12, oxidation rates were measured, and the microbial community structure was analyzed using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. The optimal pH for consumption was found to be 7 in enrichment culture and 7.6 in soil suspensions. Very low or no consumption was observed at extreme pH values of 2 (enrichment culture) and 12 (enrichment culture and soil suspension). A shift in microbial community structure was observed in enrichment cultures initiated at different pH values. Type II methanotrophs were enriched under acidic pH conditions and Type I methanotrophs were enriched in incubations from pH 4 to 10. Soil suspensions were more stable, but also showed slight shifts in the microbial community dominated by Type I methanotrophs and methylotrophs at pH 7.6–10.0. These results demonstrate that at an extreme alkaline pH (), oxidation is inhibited as growth of methane-oxidizing bacteria (MOB) is arrested in the landfill cover soil.
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Data Availability Statement
All batch tests data on gases generated during the study appear in the published article. Raw DNA sequence data files were submitted in the Sequence Read Archive (SRA) of the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) and are available under the BioProject identifier PRJN545136.
Acknowledgments
This research is a part of comprehensive project titled “Innovative Biochar-Slag-Soil Cover System for Zero Emissions at Landfills” funded by the National Science Foundation (CMMI# 1724773), which is gratefully acknowledged.
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Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 146 • Issue 6 • June 2020
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©2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Jun 27, 2019
Accepted: Dec 9, 2019
Published online: Mar 28, 2020
Published in print: Jun 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Aug 28, 2020
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