Abstract
Passive methane oxidation biosystems (PMOBs) are often proposed as a means to reduce fugitive landfill CH4 emissions, i.e. emissions not captured by gas collection systems. However, current designs may lead to the formation of a capillary barrier along the interface between the two main layers constituting passive biosystems, namely the methane oxidation layer and gas distribution layer. The formation of a capillary barrier may result in restricted upward flow of biogas at the base of methane oxidation layer, thereby leading to concentrated biogas emissions in regions known as hotpots, where passive oxidation of biotic methane is failing, if not absent. In this study, design criteria are introduced to assess the ease of biogas flow across the gas distribution-methane oxidation layers’ interface. Laboratory experiments were conducted to obtain the water retention curve, air permeability function and line of optima (on Standard Proctor curve) of the materials used to construct the methane oxidation layer of two experimental PMOBs at the St-Nicephore (Quebec, Canada) landfill. In addition, the main characteristics for other materials were obtained from the literature. Design criteria were then defined based on the degree of water saturation at the lines of optima and the pattern of air permeability functions and water retention curves. Considering these criteria in the design of PMOBs is fundamental to reduce the risk of creating hotspots when implementing PMOBs.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ahoughalandari B, Cabral AR (2016) Influence of capillary barrier effect on biogas distribution at the base of passive methane oxidation biosystems: parametric study. Waste Manag. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2016.11.026
Ait-Benichou S, Jugnia L-B, Greer CW, Cabral AR (2009) Methanotrophs and methanotrophic activity in engineered landfill biocovers. Waste Manag 29(9):2509–2517
ASTM-D698 (2012) Standard test methods for laboratory compaction characteristics of soil using standard effort (12,400 ft-lbf/ft3 (600 kN-m/m3)). ASTM International, West Conshohocken
Ba-Te B, Zhang, L, Fredlund D (2005) A general air-phase permeability function for airflow through unsaturated soils. In: Slopes and retaining structures under seismic and static conditions, pp 1–15
Ball BC, O’Sullivan MF, Hunter R (1988) Gas diffusion, fluid flow and derived pore continuity indices in relation to vehicle traffic and tillage. J Soil Sci 39:327–339
Berger J, Fornés LV, Ott C, Jager J, Wawra B, Zanke U (2005) Methane oxidation in a landfill cover with capillary barrier. Waste Manag 25:369–373
Blackwell PS, Ringrose-Voase AJ, Jayawardane NS, Olssons KA, Mckenzie DC, Mason WK (1990) The use of air-filled porosity and intrinsic permeability to air to characterize structure of macropore space and saturated hydraulic conductivity of clay soils. J Soil Sci 41:215–228
Bohn S, Jager J (2011) Low gas emissions of mechanically and biologically treated waste and microbial methane oxidation as an adapted method for mitigation of emissions. In: XIII international waste management and landfill symposium. CISA Publisher S. Margherita di Pula, Italy
Bussière B, Aubertin M, Chapuis RP (2003) The behavior of inclined covers used as oxygen barriers. Can Geotech J 40:512–535
Cabral A, Racine I, Burnotte F, Lefebvre G (2000) Diffusion of oxygen through a pulp and paper residue barrier. Can Geotech J 37:201–217
Cabral AR, Létourneau M, Yanful E, Song Q, McCartney JS, Parks J (2010a) Geotechnical issues in the design and construction of PMOBs. In: UNSAT 2010, Barcelona, pp 1361–1367
Cabral AR, Moreina JFV, Jungia LB (2010b) Biocover performance of landfill methane oxidation: experimental results. J Environ Eng 136:785–793
Capanema MA, Cabral AR (2012) Evaluating methane oxidation efficiencies in experimental landfill biocovers by mass balance and carbon stable isotopes. Water Air Soil Pollut 223(9):5623–5635
Cassini F, Scheutz C, Skov BH, Mou Z, Kjeldsen P (2017) Mitigation of methane emissions in a pilot-scale biocover system at the AV Miljø Landfill, Denmark: 1. System design and gas distribution. Waste Manag. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2017.01.013
Chi ZF, Lu WJ, Li H, Wang HT (2012) Dynamics of CH4 oxidation in landfill biocover soil: effect of O2/CH4 ratio on CH4 metabolism. Environ Pollut 170:8–14
Einola J-KM, Kettunen RH, Rintala JA (2007) Responses of methane oxidation to temperature and water content in cover soil of a boreal landfill. Soil Biol Biochem 39:1156–1164
Fredenslund AM, Scheutz C, Kjeldsen P (2010) tracer method to measure landfill gas emissions from leachate collection systems. Waste Manag 30:2146–2152
Fredlund DG, Rahardjo H (1993) Soil mechanics for unsaturated soils. Wiley, Hoboken
Fredlund DG, Rahardjo H, Fredlund MD (2012) Unsaturated soil mechanics in engineering practice. Wiley, Hoboken, p 9
Gebert J, Groengroeft A, Pfeiffer EM (2011) Relevance of soil physical properties for the microbial oxidation of methane in landfill covers. Soil Biol Biochem 43:1759–1767
He R, Wang J, Xia F, Mao L, Shen D (2012) Evaluation of methane oxidation activity in waste biocover soil during landfill stabilization. Chemosphere 89:672–679
Huber-Humer M, Röder S, Lechner P (2009) Approaches to assess biocover performance on landfills. Waste Manag 29:2092–2104
Jucá J, Maciel F (2006) Gas permeability of a compacted soil used in a landfill cover layer. In: Miller GA, Zapata CE, Houston SL, Fredlund DG (eds) Fourth international conference on unsaturated soils. American Society of Civil Engineers, Carefree, pp 1535–1546
Kamiya K, Bakrie R, Honjo Y (2006) A new method for the measurement of air permeability coefficient of unsaturated soil. In: Miller GA, Zapata CE, Houston SL, Fredlund DG (eds) Fourth international conference on unsaturated soils. American Society of Civil Engineers, Carefree, pp 1741–1752
Langfelder LJ, Chen CF, Justice JA (1968) Air permeability of compacted cohesive soils. J Soil Mech Found Div 94(4):981–1002
Leroueil S, Hight DW (2013) Compacted soils: from physics to hydraulic and mechanical behaviour. In: Caicedo B, Murillo C, Hoyos L, Colmenares JE, Berdugo IR (eds) First Pan-American conference on unsaturated soils. Cartagena, Colombia, pp 41–59
Lu N, Likos WJ (2004) Unsaturated soil mechanics. Wiley, Hoboken, p 556
Maciel F, Jucá J (2000) Laboratory and field tests for studying gas flow through MSW landfill cover. In: Shackelford CD, Houston SL, Chang NY (eds) Geo-denver. American Society of Civil Engineers, Denver, pp 569–585
Maqsoud A, Bussière B, Aubertin M, Chouteau M, Mbonimpa M (2011) Field investigation of a suction break designed to control slope-induced desaturation in an oxygen barrier. Can Geotech J 48:53–71
Marinho FAM, Andrade MCJ, Jucá JFT (2001) Air and water permeability of a compacted soil used in a solid waste landfill in Recife, Brazil. In: The third BGA geoenvironmental engineering conference. Thomas Telford Publishing, Thomas Telford Ltd., Edinburg, Scotland, pp 437–442
Mbonimpa M, Aubertin M, Aachib M, Bussière B (2003) Diffusion and consumption of oxygen in unsaturated cover materials. Can Geotech J 40:916–932
Ndanga ÉM, Bradley RL, Cabral AR (2015) Does vegetation affect the methane oxidation efficiency of passive biosystems? Waste Manag 38:240–249
Roncato CDL, Cabral AR (2012) Evaluation of methane oxidation efficiency of two biocovers: field and laboratory results. J Environ Eng 138(2):164–173
Röwer IU, Gebert J, Streese-Kleeberg J, Kleinschmidt V, Melchior S, Scharff H, Pfeiffer E-M (2012) Heterogeneous emission from a biocover designed for methane oxidation. In: 7th intercontinental landfill research symposium (ICLRS). Poster presentation, Luleä, Sweden
Scheutz C, Kjeldsen P, Bogner JE, De Visscher A, Gebert J, Hilger HA, Huber-Humer M, Spokas K (2009) Microbial methane oxidation processes and technologies for mitigation of landfill gas emissions. Waste Manag Res 27(5):409–455
Scheutz C, Fredenslund AM, Chanton J, Pedersen GB, Kjeldsen P (2011) Mitigation of methane emission from Fakse landfill using a biowindow system. Waste Manag 31:1018–1028
Springer DS, Loaiciga HA, Cullen SJ, Everett LG (1998) Air permeability of porous materials under controlled laboratory conditions. Groundwater 36(4):558–565. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6584.1998.tb02829.x
Tang AM, Cui Y-J, Richard G, Défossez P (2011) A study on the air permeability as affected by compression of three French soils. Geoderma 162:171–181
Tate KR (2015) Soil methane oxidation and land-use change—from process to mitigation. Soil Biol Biochem 80:260–272
Tétreault P, Cabral AR, Abdolahzadeh AM (2013) Non-uniform distribution of biogas under a biocover due to capillary barrier effect: case studies. In: GEOMontreal, Montreal, Canada
UMS (2013). HYPROP-UMS user’s manual. In: Art. no. HYPROP version 02. UMS GmbH München
Vaughan PR (2003) Observations on the behaviour of clay fill containing occluded air bubbles. Géotechnique 53(2):265–272
Wind GP (1968) Capillary conductivity data estimated by a simple method. In: Rijtema RE, Wassink H (ed) Water in the unsaturated zone: proceedings of UNESCO/IASH symposium, Wageningen, The Netherlands, pp 181–191
Yanful EK (1993) Oxygen diffusion through soil covers on sulphidic mine tailings. J Geotech Eng 119(8):1207–1228
Acknowledgements
This study received financial support from the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and Waste Management (WM Quebec Inc.), under the collaborative research and development Grant # CRD 379885-08 and from Discovery Grant #170226. The invaluable help of Jean-Guy Lemelin, technician, must also be acknowledged.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ahoughalandari, B., Cabral, A.R. & Leroueil, S. Elements of Design of Passive Methane Oxidation Biosystems: Fundamental and Practical Considerations About Compaction and Hydraulic Characteristics on Biogas Migration. Geotech Geol Eng 36, 2593–2609 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-018-0485-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-018-0485-z