Deretmination of the remaining stabilization potential of landfilled solid waste by sludge addition

Abstract

Research activities on the innovative landfill management techniques are becoming attractive research areas in the last decades due to increasing amounts of solid waste by increasing industrialization and urbanization. In these landfill management techniques, determination of the stabilization potential of solid waste and the degree of stabilization at the site play important role because the degree and rate of stabilization in a landfill can be valuable parameter for future predictions of leachate and gas generation, determination of the feasibility of a landfill methane recovery program, evaluation of the closure time and the final use of the site. In this study, the remammg stabilization potential of solid waste retrieved from an operating landfill was investigated by the anaerobic digestion of the waste with anaerobically digested sludge with differing sludge:waste ratios. Four reactors were placed in a temperature controlled aquarium and loaded with different sludge:waste ratios in order to determine the remaining stabilization potential, to find the optimum ratio for the highest methane yield and to investigate the use of sludge as an enhancement technique for the waste degradation. The results of the study suggested that the addition of anaerobically digested sludge was an effective technique for the enhancement of solid waste degradation. Among the different sludge:waste ratios, the highest ratio 1:4 was found the optimum one for the enhancement and for the methane production in the study. The remaining stabilization potential of the retrieved solid waste was determined as 7% at the end of the study.