Fate of municipal refuse deposited in sanitary landfills and leachate treatability
Titel:
Fate of municipal refuse deposited in sanitary landfills and leachate treatability
Auteur:
Saint-Fort, Roger
Verschenen in:
Journal of environmental science and health. Part A, Toxic/hazardous substances & environmental engineering
Paginering:
Jaargang 27 (1992) nr. 2 pagina's 369-401
Jaar:
1992-02
Inhoud:
Landfilling has been used for many years as the most common and economical means of domestic refuse disposal generated by society. Municipal refuse being deposited in a sanitary landfill will be subjected to an array of complex interactive physical, chemical, and biological processes involving partitioning of waste constituents among the vapor, solid or the aqueous phases. Initially, decomposition of a load of wastes deposited in a sanitary landfill will proceed aerobically. However, limited supply of oxygen trapped in the interstices of the compacted wastes becomes quickly denuded by rapid consumption of aerobic organisms. It follows that anoxic conditions become largely dominant giving rise to biogas production consisting principally of methane, carbon dioxide, and minute quantities of hydrogen sulfide, nitrogen and gaseous hydrocarbons. Depending upon the philosophy on which the landfill is managed, biogas production can be considered as a dangerous hazard because of flammability or asphyxiating properties or as a desirable asset. In the latter case, a gas recovery system may be used to extract the biogas from the landfill for energy purposes. Considerable concern has been expressed about leachate production from sanitary landfills and public health considerations by virtue of the consequent offensive smells and breeding ground for disease carrying animals. This means that landfills must be properly managed so that public health and water supplies are not adversely affected. The characteristics of leachates at a landfill site will be expected to vary widely because of the great variance in the waste constituents contributing to their formation and the complex interactions between the waste matrix with infiltrated water percolating through the waste while dissolving in it an array of organic and inorganic substances; climatic conditions; variation in the operation; and management of the landfill. Leachates produced from a landfill may be high in minerals, hardness, COD, BOD, turbidity, and color. Furthermore, leachates may contain other hazardous materials of various sources and illegally disposed toxic wastes. Therefore, leachates leaving the fill boundaries represent a serious problem that can have long term environmental, economical, and health impact by entering ground and surface waters. To correct or avoid such problems, leachates must be collected and adequately treated before ultimate disposal. Since the variability and strength of a landfill leachate have important implications on determining treatment efficiency, several options for their partial or total treatment have been developed. Those treatment processes essentially encompass three main classes: biological treatment, chemical/physical treatment, and Leachate channeling. This paper addresses the dynamic changes occuring in municipal waste deposited in sanitary landfills and alternative options with regard to their treatment.
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