Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) is complex refuse consisting of various materials with different properties. Some of the components are stable while others degrade as a result of biological and chemical processes. Leachate resulting from this is hazardous pollutant to the soil and ground water underlying. Leaching of this leachate and heavy metals into the soil leads to the contamination of both so...

Since municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills emit significant amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, there is considerable interest in quantifying surficial methane emissions from landfills. The authors propose a new and easier method by which to estimate methane emissions. The technique uses hundreds of ambient air VOC measurements taken within a landfill, as receptors, and solves the sta...

In the analysis and design of municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills, there are many uncertainties associated with the properties of MSW during and after MSW placement. Several studies are performed involving different laboratory and field tests to understand the complex behavior and properties of MSW, and based on these studies, different models are proposed for the analysis of time dependent s...

Carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide are the major Greenhouse Gases (GHG’s), which emit from landfill areas and contribute significantly to global warming. Moreover, that the global warming potential of methane is 21 times higher than that of carbon dioxide and it has highest generation (60%) than other gases. Therefore, there is immense concern for its abatement or utilization from landfi...

In bioreactor landfill, the leachate flow and moisture distribution depend upon saturated and unsaturated hydraulic properties of municipal solid waste (MSW). The effects of unsaturated parameters have not been studied because of scarcity of the data and variation in unsaturated parameters due to MSW heterogeneity, degree of decomposition, and pore structure. In this study, a numerical two-phas...

There is considerable interest today in the so-called “biocell” approach toward municipal solid waste (MSW) landfilling in which leachate is introduced back into the landfill. This approach reduces the cost of leachate management and is said to reduce/eliminate the potential for long term landfill gas production and groundwater pollution. However, a critical review of the typical approach being...

Aluminum enters municipal solid waste MSW landfills from untreated raw curbside trash MSW , industrial waste, and aluminum production wastes variously called dross, baghouse fines, salt cake, and other designations. Aluminum related reactions can arise and become problematic for landfill operations by generating undesirable heat, liquid leachate, and gases, such as hydrogen, hydrogen sulfide, c...

Methane gas is a by-product of landfilling municipal solid wastes (MSW). Most of the global MSW is dumped in non-regulated landfills and the generated methane is emitted to the atmosphere. Some of the modern regulated landfills attempt to capture and utilize landfill biogas, a renewable energy source, to generate electricity or heat. As of 2001, there were about one thousand landfills collectin...

Municipal solid waste incinerator (MSWI) bottom ash is often used as the protection layer for the geomembrane and intermediate layer in the landfill. In this study, three sets of simulated landfills with different mass proportion of MSWI bottom ash layer to municipal solid waste (MSW) layer were operated. Cu and Zn concentrations in the leachates and MSW were monitored to investigate the effect...