Sustainable solid waste management and in-situ attenuation mechanisms in landfills under aerobic and anaerobic conditions

Abstract

The objective of this study was to obtain information about aerobic and combination of aerobic and anaerobic digestion of solid waste in landfills in order to evaluate and determine an efficient and cost-effective landfill management system. The proposed research was focus mainly on to find optimal conditions for solid waste degradation and better understand the attenuation mechanisms for carbon, nitrogen, sulfur and heavy metal by using aerobic, anaerobic, aerobic pretreated and aerobic remediated landfill concepts. With this goal, four landfill bioreactors were operated under aerobic and anaerobic conditions in a thermo-insulated room at a constant temperature of 32 ºC. Reactors were filled with the shredded synthetic solid waste of 19.5 kg prepared according to the average municipal solid waste compositions determined in İstanbul and operated under wet-tomb management strategy by using leachate recirculation. Aerobic conditions in the reactor were developed by using an air compressor. The results of this study showed that aeration in municipal solid waste landfills is a viable management option for the accelerated stabilization of a waste matrix. Aeration is a feasible way to treat the leachate in situ, and, therefore, decrease the cost of further external treatment. Aeration of the waste mass provides rapid removal of organics, nitrogen and phosphorus. Aerobic pretreated and aerobic remediated bioreactor landfill concepts were also more efficient in terms of waste stabilization and leachate treatment when compared to the anaerobic bioreactor.|Keyword: Areobic landfilling, anaerobic landfilling, municipal solid waste, bioreactor, leachate recycle