Fluorescent Tracers - a Tool for Landfill Investigation and Management

The paper presents a three-stage framework for assessment of fluorescent dyes as tracers for use within Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) landfills. The value of tracer testing as a means of determining leachate behaviour and guiding leachate management strategies is explained. In the first stage, the fluorescence spectra of 27 leachates were compared with 30 fluorescent dyes, to find those dyes for which there was little interference from leachate. Fluorescein (Uranine), Eosin-Y and Rhodamine WT were selected. In a second stage, the dyes’ resistance to biodegradation by anaerobes was tested. Fluorescein and Rhodamine resisted degradation but Eosin was moderately degraded. In the final stage, all three dyes were sorbed on shredded MSW, with results fitted to Freundlich isotherms. It was concluded that Rhodamine WT was the most suitable quantitative tracer, as modelling its behaviour would require only a single parameter to be fitted. Eosin would require parameters for linear sorption and degradation. Fluorescein was shown to be an excellent qualitative tracer.