Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Leachate recirculation in bioreactor landfills considering the effect of MSW settlement on hydraulic properties

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Environmental Earth Sciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

During leachate recirculation, a bioreactor landfill will experience more rapid and complete settlement, which is mainly attributed to the weight of municipal solid waste (MSW) and its biodegradation. The settlement of MSW may cause the decrease of void ratio of MSW, which will influence the permeability of MSW and the leachate quantity that can be held in bioreactor landfills. In this study, a new one-dimensional model of leachate recirculation using infiltration pond is developed. The new method is not only capable of describing leachate flow considering the effect of MSW settlement, but also accounting separately leachate flow in saturated and unsaturated zones. Moreover, the effects of operating parameters are evaluated with a parametric study. The analyzing results show that the influence depth of leachate recirculation considering the effect of MSW settlement is smaller than the value without considering the effect. The influence depth and leachate recirculation volume increase with the increase of infiltration pond pressure head and MSW void ratio. This indicates that the field compaction of MSW has a great influence on the leachate recirculation.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9

Similar content being viewed by others

Abbreviations

a :

McDougall’s model calculation parameter

A :

Elagroudy’s model calculation parameter

b :

McDougall’s model calculation parameter

B :

Elagroudy’s model calculation parameter

C r :

Compression coefficient of MSW

C(h p):

Specific moisture capacity

D(h p):

Diffusion coefficient

e :

Void ratio of MSW

e 0 :

Initial void ratio of MSW

g :

Acceleration of gravity

H :

Total pressure head

H a :

Infiltration pond pressure head

h p :

Pressure head

h p0 :

Initial pressure head

K(h p):

Unsaturated hydraulic conductivity of MSW

K(h p) x :

Unsaturated hydraulic conductivity of MSW in the x direction

K(h p) y :

Unsaturated hydraulic conductivity of MSW in the y direction

K(h p) z :

Unsaturated hydraulic conductivity of MSW in the z direction

K sat :

Saturated hydraulic conductivity of MSW

K x :

Saturated hydraulic conductivity of MSW in the x direction

K y :

Saturated hydraulic conductivity of MSW in the y direction

K z :

Saturated hydraulic conductivity of MSW in the z direction

k(h p)r :

Relative permeability

L :

Depth of waste

m v :

Waste compression coefficient

m :

Van Genuchten parameter related to pore size distribution

n :

Porosity of MSW

p :

Water pressure

t :

Time

Δt :

Time increment

V :

Volume of MSW

V 1 :

Volume of leachate

v x :

Flow rate in the x direction

v y :

Flow rate in the y direction

v z :

Flow rate in the z direction

α :

Van Genuchten parameter related to air entry pressure

β :

Water compression coefficient

θ :

Volumetric water content

θ r :

Residual water content

θ s :

Saturated water content

Θ:

Effective saturation

μ s :

Specific storage

φ :

Constant equals to 0 when h p ≥ 0 and 1 when h p < 0

ρ :

Density of fluid

σ′:

Effective stress

σ c :

Pre-consolidation stress

ω :

Constant equals to 1 when h p ≥ 0 and 0 when h p < 0

γ :

Unit weight of MSW

References

  • Elagroudy SA, Abdel-Razik MH, Warith MA, Ghobrial FH (2008) Waste settlement in bioreactor landfill models. Waste Manag 28(11):2366–2374

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haydar M, Khire M (2005) Leachate recirculation using horizontal trenches in bioreactor landfills. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng 131(7):837–847

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hettiarachchi CH, Meegoda JN, Hettiaratchi JP (2005) Towards a fundamental model to predict the settlements in bioreactor landfills. Waste Contain Remediat ASCE Geotechn Spec Publ 130–142:3851–3865

    Google Scholar 

  • Jain P, Townsend TG, Tolaymat TM (2010a) Steady-state design of horizontal systems for liquids addition at bioreactor landfills. Waste Manag 30(12):2560–2569

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jain P, Townsend TG, Tolaymat TM (2010b) Steady-state design of vertical wells for liquids addition at bioreactor landfills. Waste Manag 30(12):2022–2029

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCreanor PT, Reinhart DR (1996) Hydrodynamic modeling of leachate recirculating landfills. Water Sci Tech 34(7–8):463–470

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCreanor PT, Reinhart DR (2000) Mathematical modeling of leachate routing in a leachate recirculating landfill. Wat Res 34(4):1285–1295

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McDougall J (2007) A hydro-bio-mechanical model for settlement and other behaviour in landfilled waste. Comput Geotech 34(2007):229–246

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mehta R, Barlaz MA, Yazdani R, Augenstein D, Bryars M, Sinderson L (2002) Refuse decomposition in the presence and absence of leachate recirculation. J Envion Eng 128(3):228–236

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schroeder PR, Dozier TS, Zappi PA, McEnroe BM, Sjostrom JW, Peyton RL (1994) “The hydrologic evaluation of landfill performance (HELP) model: engineering documentation for version 3”, EPA/600/R-94/168b. US Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development, Washington, DC

  • Sharma HD, Reddy KR (2004) Geoenvironmental engineering. Wiley, Hoboken

    Google Scholar 

  • Stoltz G, Gourc JP, Oxarango L (2010) Characterisation of the physico-mechanical parameters of MSW. Waste Manag 30(8):1439–1449

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Townsend TG (1995) Leachate recycle infiltration ponds. J Environ Eng ASCE 121(6):465–471

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Genuchten MT, Th M (1980) A closed-form equation for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soils. Soil Sci Soc Am J 44:892–898

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • White JK, Beaven RP, Powrie W, Knox K (2011) Leachate recirculation in a landfill: some insights obtained from the development of a simple 1-D model. Waste Manag 31(6):1210–1221

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

Much of the work described in this paper was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos. 41072201, 41172245 and 41222021, the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) under Grant No. 2012CB719803, the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University under Grant No. NCET-13-0421, and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities. The writers would like to greatly acknowledge all these financial supports and express the most sincere gratitude.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geotechnical Engineering, Tongji University, Si Ping Road 1239, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Shi-Jin Feng, Xu Zhang & Ben-Yi Cao

  2. Key Laboratory of Geotechnical and Underground of Ministry of Education, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Shi-Jin Feng

Authors
  1. Shi-Jin Feng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Xu Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Ben-Yi Cao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shi-Jin Feng.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Feng, SJ., Zhang, X. & Cao, BY. Leachate recirculation in bioreactor landfills considering the effect of MSW settlement on hydraulic properties. Environ Earth Sci 72, 2315–2323 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-014-3140-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-014-3140-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation