LCA and economic evaluation of landfill leachate and gas technologies

Landfills receiving a mix of waste, including organics, have developed dramatically over the last 3-4 decades; from open dumps to engineered facilities with extensive controls on leachate and gas. The conventional municipal landfill will in most climates produce a highly contaminated leachate and a significant amount of landfill gas. Leachate controls may include bottom liners and leachate collection systems as well as leachate treatment prior to discharge to surface water. Gas controls may include oxidizing top covers, gas collection systems with flares or gas utilization systems for production of electricity and heat.The importance of leachate and gas control measures in reducing the overall environmental impact from a conventional landfill was assessed by life-cycle-assessment (LCA). The direct cost for the measures were also estimated providing a basis for assessing which measures are the most cost-effective in reducing the impact from a conventional landfill. This was done by modeling landfills ranging from a simple open dump to highly engineered conventional landfills with energy recovery in form of heat or electricity. The modeling was done in the waste LCA model EASEWASTE. The results showed drastic improvements for most impact categories. Global warming went from an impact of 0.1 person equivalent (PE) for the dump to −0.05 PE for the best design. Similar improvements were found for photochemical ozone formation (0.02 PE to 0.002 PE) and stratospheric ozone formation (0.04 PE to 0.001 PE).For the toxic and spoiled groundwater impact categories the trend is not as clear. The reason for this was that the load to the environment shifted as more technologies were used. For the dump landfill the main impacts were impacts for spoiled groundwater due to lack of leachate collection, 2.3 PE down to 0.4 PE when leachate is collected. However, at the same time, leachate collection causes a slight increase in eco-toxicity and human toxicity via water (0.007E to 0.013PE and 0.002 to 0.003 PE respectively). The reason for this is that even if the leachate is treated, slight amounts of contaminants are released through emissions of treated wastewater to surface waters.The largest environmental improvement with regard to the direct cost of the landfill was the capping and leachate treatment system. The capping, though very cheap to establish, gave a huge benefit in lowered impacts, the leachate collection system though expensive gave large benefits as well. The other gas measures were found to give further improvements, for a minor increase in cost.     

A load model based on antecedent dry periods for pollutants in stormwater.

A load model for stormwater constituents is proposed that describes mass retained on the drainage area after previous storms, as a function of a weighted sum of previous antecedent dry periods. It was used to compute the event load for 14 constituents--zinc, copper, cadmium, nickel, chromium, lead, mercury, silver, total suspended solids (TSS), E. coli, fecal coliform, total soluble phosphorus, total phosphorus, and 5-day biochemical oxygen demand. The results show acceptable fits for most constituents based on over 400 rain events (2000 to 2004) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Considering the retained pollutant mass after one previous storm rather than assuming the area to be clean after the previous storm gives more accurate results for all constituents, except TSS and silver. The model can be used for mixed land-use areas. The ratios of deposition fluxes of zinc and individual metals were determined at a major parking lot producing a profile characteristic of automobile emissions.     

Apportionment of ambient primary and secondary fine particulate matter at the Pittsburgh National Energy Laboratory particulate matter characterization site using positive matrix factorization and a potential source contributions function analysis

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations associated with 202 24-hr samples collected at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) particulate matter (PM) characterization site in south Pittsburgh from October 1999 through September 2001 were used to apportion PM2.5 into primary and secondary contributions using Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF2). Input included the concentrations of PM2.5 mass determined with a Federal Reference Method (FRM) sampler, semi-volatile PM2.5 organic material, elemental carbon (EC), and trace element components of PM2.5. A total of 11 factors were identified. The results of potential source contributions function (PSCF) analysis using PMF2 factors and HYSPLIT-calculated back-trajectories were used to identify those factors associated with specific meteorological transport conditions. The 11 factors were identified as being associated with emissions from various specific regions and facilities including crustal material, gasoline combustion, diesel combustion, and three nearby sources high in trace metals. Three sources associated with transport from coal-fired power plants to the southeast, a combination of point sources to the northwest, and a steel mill and associated sources to the west were identified. In addition, two secondary-material-dominated sources were identified, one was associated with secondary products of local emissions and one was dominated by secondary ammonium sulfate transported to the NETL site from the west and southwest. Of these 11 factors, the four largest contributors to PM2.5 were the secondary transported material (dominated by ammonium sulfate) (47%), local secondary material (19%), diesel combustion emissions (10%), and gasoline combustion emissions (8%). The other seven factors accounted for the remaining 16% of the PM2.5 mass. The findings are consistent with the major source of PM2.5 in the Pittsburgh area being dominated by ammonium sulfate from distant transport and so decoupled from local activity emitting organic pollutants in the metropolitan area. In contrast, the major local secondary sources are dominated by organic material.     

水热条件下绿矾稳定垃圾焚烧飞灰的研究

研究了饱和温度为200 ℃的水热条件下绿矾对垃圾焚烧飞灰中重金属的稳定效果,并与常温常压下的稳定效果进行了对比.研究结果表明,高温水热条件有利于Pb特别是Cr(Ⅵ)的稳定,对Cd的稳定无明显影响,同时绿矾的用量大为降低,降低了药剂的成本.     

Geology and sediment geochemistry of a landfill leachate contaminated aquifer (Grindsted, Denmark)

A landfill leachate affected aquifer was investigated with respect to the geology and sediment geochemistry (solid organic carbon, cation exchange capacity, oxidation capacity, reduced iron and sulfur species) involving 185 sediment samples taken along a 305-m-long and 10–12-m-deep transect downgradient from the landfill. The geology showed two distinct sand layers (upper Quaternary, Weichselian and a lower Tertiary, Miocene) sandwiching thin layers of silt/clay deposits, peat and brown coal. The organic carbon content (TOC) and the cation exchange capacity (CEC) of the sandy sediments were low (TOC, 100–300 μg C (g DW)⁻¹ ; CEC, 0.1–0.5 meq per 100 g DW) and correlated fairly well with the geology. Processes in the contaminant plume caused depletion of oxidation capacity and precipitation of reduced iron and sulfur species. However, some of these parameters were also affected by the geology, e.g. the oxidation capacity (OXC) was significantly higher in the Quaternary layer (OXC, 14–35 μeq g DW⁻¹) than in the Tertiary sand layer (OXC, <5 μeq g DW⁻¹). The intermediate layers (silt/clay and brown coal) have significantly higher values of most of the parameters investigated. This work demonstrates the need for a small scale geological model and a detailed mapping of the geochemistry of the sediments in order to distinguish impacts caused by the contaminant plumes from natural variations in the aquifer geochemistry.     

Methane production during storage of anaerobically digested municipal organic waste

Anaerobic digestion of source-separated municipal organic waste is considered feasible in Denmark. The limited hydraulic retention in the biogas reactor (typically 15 d) does not allow full degradation of the organic waste. Storage of anaerobically digested municipal organic waste can therefore be a source of methane (CH4) emission that may contribute significantly to the potential global warming impact from the waste treatment system. This study provides a model for quantifying the CH4 production from stored co-digested municipal organic waste and estimates the production under typical Danish climatic conditions, thus quantifying the potential global warming impact from storage of the digested municipal organic waste before its use on agricultural land. Laboratory batch tests on CH4 production as well as temperature measurements in eight full-scale storage tanks provided data for developing a model estimating the CH4 production in storage tanks containing digested municipal organic waste. The temperatures measured in separate storage tanks on farms receiving digested slurry were linearly correlated with air temperature. In storage tanks receiving slurry directly from biogas reactors, significantly higher temperatures were measured due to the high temperatures of the effluent from the reactor. Storage tanks on Danish farms are typically emptied in April and have a constant inflow of digested material. During the warmest months the content of digested material is therefore low, which limits the yearly CH4 production from storage.