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State-Of-The Practice Review of Bioreactor Landfills

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State-Of-The Practice Review of Bioreactor Landfills EPA/600/X-XX/XXX August 2005 STATE-OF-THE PRACTICE REVIEW OF BIOREACTOR LANDILLS Craig H. Benson Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, Wisconsin, USA Morton A. Barlaz Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering North Carolina State University Raleigh, North Carolina, USA Dale T. Lane STS Consultants, Ltd. Madison, Wisconsin, USA James M. Rawe Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) Under Contract No. 68-C-00-179 Hackensack, NJ, USA David Carson Thabet Tolaymat Ph.D. David Carson Project Officers National Risk Management Research Laboratory Office of Research and Development U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Cincinnati, Ohio 4526 i Notice The production of this document was funded primarily by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This document has been subjected to EPA’s peer and administrative review, and has been approved for publication as an EPA document. The identity of the landfill bioreactor sites from which data were collected is not disclosed at the request of some of the site owners. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use. ii Forward The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is charged by Congress with protecting the Nation’s land, air, and water resources. Under a mandate of national environmental laws, the Agency strives to formulate and implement actions leading to a compatible balance between human activities and the ability of natural systems to support and nurture life. To meet this mandate, EPA’s research program is providing data and technical support for solving environmental problems today and building a science knowledge base necessary to manage our ecological resources wisely, understand how pollutants affect our health, and prevent or reduce environmental risks in the future. The National Risk Management Research Laboratory (NRMRL) is the Agency’s center for investigation of technological and management approaches for preventing and reducing risks from pollution that threaten human health and the environment. The focus of the Laboratory’s research program is on methods and their cost-effectiveness for prevention and control of pollution to air, land, water, and subsurface resources; protection of water quality in public water systems; remediation of contaminated sites, sediments and ground water; prevention and control of indoor air pollution; and restoration of ecosystems. NRMRL collaborates with both public and private sector partners to foster technologies that reduce the cost of compliance and to anticipate emerging problems. NRMRL’s research provides solutions to environmental problems by: developing and promoting technologies that protect and improve the environment; advancing scientific and engineering information to support regulatory and policy decisions; and providing the technical support and information transfer to ensure implementation of environmental regulations and strategies at the national, state, and community levels. This publication has been produced as part of the Laboratory’s strategic long-term research plan. It is published and made available by EPA’s Office of Research and Development to assist the user community and to link researchers with their clients. Sally Gutierrez, Director National Risk Management Research Laboratory iii Abstract Recently approved regulations by the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) give approved states the power to grant landfill variance under Subtitle D by allowing these landfills to introduce bulk liquids into the solid waste mass. These type of landfills are called bioreactor landfills. The study presented here examines six full-scale bioreactor projects with the objective of providing a perspective of current practice and technical issues that differentiate bioreactor landfills from conventional landfills. For the purpose of only this study, bioreactor landfills were defined in a broad sense as “landfills where liquids are intentionally introduced into the waste mass in an effort to degrade the waste in a controlled fashion”. The definition presented here includes landfills recirculating leachate with the intention of enhancing degradation as well as landfills controlling liquids and gases in a manner intended to optimize degradation. The analysis showed that bioreactor landfills operate and function in much the same manner as conventional landfills, with designs similar to established standards for waste containment facilities. Recirculation of leachate also appeared to have little effect on the integrity or the performance of the containment system. Leachate generation rates, leachate head on the liner, leachate temperatures, and liner temperatures appeared to be essentially the same in bioreactor and conventional landfills. Data from leakage detection systems also indicated liners used for bioreactors were discharging liquid no different from that discharged by conventional landfills. A definitive assessment regarding the effectiveness of degrading waste using current bioreactor operations was not possible, although analysis of gas data indicates that biodegradation probably was accelerated at one or two sites. This does not imply that waste was not being degraded at an accelerated rate at bioreactor landfills. Rather, ambiguities in the data precluded definitive inferences regarding the effect of bioreactor operations on waste degradation and methane generation. More detailed and carefully collected data are needed before reliable conclusions can be drawn. Analysis of leachate quality data showed that bioreactors generally produce stronger leachate than conventional landfills during the first two to three years of recirculation. However, after two to three years, leachate from conventional and bioreactor landfills were similar, at least in terms of conventional wastewater parameters (BOD, COD, pH). The exception was ammonia, which tended to remain elevated in bioreactor landfills due to the absence of biological mechanisms for removing ammonia under anaerobic conditions. Analyses were not conducted to determine if bioreactor operations affect concentrations of metals, volatile organic compounds, or other constituents in leachate. Settlement data collected from two of the sites indicate that settlements were larger and occurred at a faster rate in landfills operated as bioreactors. Anecdotal reports and visual observations at the other sites were consistent with the settlement data. Thus, the waste mass in a bioreactor can be expected to settle more quickly than in a conventional landfill. However, the results were inconclusive about the nature of the settlement primary, caused by the increase in the mass by the liquid introduced, or secondary, caused by an increase in degradation of solid waste mass. An important finding of this study is that insufficient data are being collected to fully evaluate whether bioreactor methods used in practice at commercial and municipal landfills are effective in enhancing waste degradation, stabilization, and gas generation. Future studies should include more detailed monitoring and evaluation schemes that can be used to form definitive conclusions regarding the effectiveness of bioreactor operational methods. Data from such studies would also be useful in identifying more efficient and effective methods for operating bioreactor landfills. iv Table of Content Forward ......................................................................................................................................................... iii Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................... iv Table of Content............................................................................................................................................. v List of Tables................................................................................................................................................. vi List of Figures .............................................................................................................................................. vii Acknowledgment......................................................................................................................................... viii 1.0 Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 1 2.0 Regulatory Overview................................................................................................................................ 2 3.0 Sites Selection and Data Collection.......................................................................................................... 3 3.1 Selection Process ................................................................................................................................. 3 3.2 Data Collection, Analysis, and Quality Evaluation ............................................................................. 4 4.0 General Site Characteristics...................................................................................................................... 4 4.1 Waste Stream....................................................................................................................................... 4 4.2 Liner System.......................................................................................................................................
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