Abiotic and Biotic Compression of Municipal Solid Waste
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 138, Issue 8
Abstract
This study focused on quantifying relative contributions of abiotic and biotic compression of municipal solid waste (MSW). Abiotic mechanisms include immediate compression, mechanical creep, and moisture-induced waste softening. The biotic mechanism is decomposition of the MSW organic fraction, which when coupled with mechanical creep, yields biocompression. Three 610-mm-diameter laboratory compression experiments were conducted for 1,150 days under the following conditions: (1) waste with no liquid addition (dry), (2) liquid addition spiked with biocide (abiotic), and (3) leachate recirculation (biotic). Immediate compression strain was similar in all three tests (24–27%). Mechanical creep, moisture-induced softening, and biocompression were compared via time-dependent compression ratios (). Moisture-induced softening occurred in both the abiotic and biotic cells in response to liquid addition and leachate recirculation. Moisture-induced softening accelerated the accumulation of mechanical creep (i.e., approximately doubled due to mechanical creep relative to the dry cell), but did not increase the overall magnitude. , in the biotic cell, correlated with the methane flow rate when methanogenesis was controlled by the rate of solids hydrolysis. , due to mechanical creep in the dry cell and biocompression in the biotic cell, increased exponentially with temperature, and can be represented with an exponential model. , due to biocompression, was approximately one order of magnitude larger than due to mechanical creep.
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Acknowledgments
Financial support was provided by the University of Wisconsin-North Carolina State University bioreactor partnership (www.bioreactorpartnership.org), which was sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation (Grant No. EEC-0538500) and a consortium of industry partners (CH2MHill, Geosyntec Consultants, Republic Services, Veolia Environmental Services, Waste Connections Inc., and Waste Management) through the National Science Foundation’s Partnerships for Innovation Program. Additional thanks are extended to Ronald Breitmeyer (Exponent Inc., USA) and Suna Erses (Sakarya University, Turkey) for assistance with laboratory testing.
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Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 138 • Issue 8 • August 2012
Pages: 877 - 888
Copyright
© 2012. American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 15, 2011
Accepted: Nov 1, 2011
Published online: Dec 10, 2011
Published in print: Aug 1, 2012
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