Landfill Liner Failure: an Open Question for Landfill Risk Analysis

The European Union Landfill regulations (1999/31/EC) are based on the premise that technological barrier systems can fully contain all landfill leachate produced during waste degradation, and thus provide complete protection to groundwater. The long-term durability of containment systems are to date unproven as landfill liner systems have only been used for about 30 years. Many recent studies have drawn attention to some of the deficiencies associated with artificial lining systems, particularly synthetic membrane systems. Consequently, failure modes of landfill liners need to be quantified and analysed. A probabilistic approach, which is usually performed for complex technological systems such as nuclear reactors, chemical plants and spacecrafts, can be applied usefully to the evaluation of landfill liner integrity and to clarify the failure issue (reliability) of liners currently applied. This approach can be suitably included into risk analysis to manage the landfill aftercare period.

Methane oxidation and attenuation of sulphur compounds in landfill top cover systems: Lab-scale tests

In this study,a top cover system is investigated as a control for emissions during the aftercare of new landfills and for old landfills where biogas energy production might not be profitable.Different materials were studied as landfill cover system in lab-scale columns：mechanical–biological pretreated municipal solid waste（MBP）;mechanical–biological pretreated biowaste（PB）;fine（PBSf）and coarse（PBSc）mechanical–biological pretreated mixtures of biowaste and sewage sludge,and natural soil（NS）.The effectiveness of these materials in removing methane and sulphur compounds from a gas stream was tested,even coupled with activated carbon membranes.Concentrations of CO2,CH4,O2,N2,H2S and mercaptans were analysed at different depths along the columns.Methane degradation was assessed using mass balance and the results were expressed in terms of methane oxidation rate（MOR）.The highest maximum and mean MOR were observed for MBP（17.2 g CH4/m^2/hr and 10.3 g CH4/m^2/hr,respectively）.Similar values were obtained with PB and PBSc.The lowest values of MOR were obtained for NS（6.7 g CH4/m^2/hr）and PBSf（3.6 g CH4/m^2/hr）,which may be due to their low organic content and void index,respectively.Activated membranes with high load capacity did not seem to have an influence on the methane oxidation process：MBP coupled with 220 g/m^2and 360 g/m^2membranes gave maximum MOR of 16.5 g CH4/m^2/hr and 17.4 g CH4/m^2/hr,respectively.Activated carbon membranes proved to be very effective on H2S adsorption.Furthermore,carbonyl sulphide,ethyl mercaptan and isopropyl mercaptan seemed to be easily absorbed by the filling materials.

Use of oleaginous plants in phytotreatment of grey water and yellow water from source separation of sewage

Efficient and economic reuse of waste is one of the pillars of modern environmental engineering. In the field of domestic sewage management,source separation of yellow（urine）,brown（faecal matter）and grey waters aims to recover the organic substances concentrated in brown water,the nutrients（nitrogen and phosphorous）in the urine and to ensure an easier treatment and recycling of grey waters. With the objective of emphasizing the potential of recovery of resources from sewage management,a lab-scale research study was carried out at the University of Padova in order to evaluate the performances of oleaginous plants（suitable for biodiesel production）in the phytotreatment of source separated yellow and grey waters. The plant species used were Brassica napus（rapeseed）,Glycine max（soybean）and Helianthus annuus（sunflower）. Phytotreatment tests were carried out using 20 L pots. Different testing runs were performed at an increasing nitrogen concentration in the feedstock. The results proved that oleaginous species can conveniently be used for the phytotreatment of grey and yellow waters from source separation of domestic sewage,displaying high removal efficiencies of nutrients and organic substances（nitrogen 〉 80%; phosphorous 〉 90%; COD nearly 90%）. No inhibition was registered in the growth of plants irrigated with different mixtures of yellow and grey waters,where the characteristics of the two streams were reciprocally and beneficially integrated.

Effectiveness of aerobic pretreatment of municipal solid waste for accelerating biogas generation during simulated landfilling

This study evaluates the effectiveness of aerobic pretreatment of municipal solid waste （MSW） on reducing lag phase and accelerating biogas generation. Aerobic pretreatment degree （APD） was determined on the basis of reduction in volatile solids （VS） on a wet weight basis. In this study, intermittent aeration （IA） was applied to three reactors as a main aeration mode; since a single reactor was operated under continuous aeration mode. However, the purpose of the experiment was to reduce VS content of waste, irrespective of the comparison between aeration modes. Fresh MSW was first pretreated aerobically with different aeration rates （10, 40, 60 and 85 L/min/m3） for the period of 30- 50 days, resulting in VS-loss equivalent to 20%, 27%, 38% and 53q4 on w/w basis for the wastes AI, A2, A3 and A4, respectively. The cumulative biogas production, calculated based on the modified Gompertz model were 384, 195, 353,215, and 114 L/kg VS for the wastes A0, A1, A2, A3 and A4, respectively. Untreated waste （A0） showed a long lag phase; whereas the lag phases of pretreated MSW were reduced by more than 90e/L Aerobically pretreated wastes reached stable methanogenic phase within 41 days compared to 418 days for untreated waste. The waste mass decreased by about 8% to 27% compared to untreated MSW, indicative that even more MSW could be placed in the same landfill. The study confirmed the effectiveness of aerobic pretreatment of MSW prior to landfilling on reducing lag phase and accelerating biogas generation.