Field Temperatures and Geothermal Modeling of an MSW Landfill Located in Humid Climate
Publication: Geo-Congress 2022
ABSTRACT
While most municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills maintain temperatures below 55°C (131°F), a relatively few MSW landfills have temperatures exceeding 93°C (200°F). In order to understand the key mechanisms that allow heat accumulation and temperature rise, commercial geothermal model TETRAD was used to simulate the heat transfer in an MSW landfill located in the southeastern United States. Field temperatures of the landfill were monitored using thermistor sensor arrays. The measured peak temperatures ranged from 68°C to 77°C (155°F to 170°F). Waste heat generation, infiltration, and leachate flow were the key variables evaluated in the modeling. The model results indicated that the average waste heat generation rates for this landfill ranged from 0.3 to 1.4 W/m3. The higher heat generation rate corresponds to a relatively young (≤4 years) portion of waste containing a relatively high mass fraction of coal combustion fly ash. The lower heat generation rate corresponds to a 14-year old portion of waste predominantly containing MSW.
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Geo-Congress 2022
Pages: 111 - 119
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© 2020 ASCE.
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Published online: Mar 17, 2022
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