Affiliations: College of Resource and Environmental Science,
Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China | Chongqing Environmental Protection Bureau, Chongqing
400010, China | Chongqing Construction Committee, Chongqing 400010,
China
Abstract: Bioreactor landfills allow a more active landfill management that
recognizes the biological, chemical and physical processes involved in a
landfill environment. The results of laboratory-scale simulators of landfill
reactors treating municipal solid wastes were studied, the effect of solid
waste size, leachate recirculation, nutrient balance, pH value, moisture
content and temperature on the rate of municipal solid waste (MSW)
biodegradation were determined, and it indicated the optimum pH value, moisture
content and temperature can used to decompose MSW. The results of waste
biodegradation were compared with that of the simulators of the
leachate-recirculated landfill and conservative sanitary landfill. In the
control experiment the antitheses of a decreasing trend of the organic load,
measured as biological oxygen demand and chemical oxygen demand, was shown, and
heavy metals concentration was observed. An obvious enhancement of effective
disposal from simulator of conservative sanitary landfill (CSL), to that of
leachate-recirculated landfill (LRL) and to that of conditioned bioreactor
landfill (CBL) would be noted, through displaying the compared results of solid
waste settlement, heavy metal concentration in leachate, methane production
rate, biogas composition, BOD and COD as well as their ratio.
Keywords: landfill bioreactor, methanogenesis, methane production, municipal solid waste, leachate recirculation, biodegradation of solid waste, specific methanogenic activity (SMA)
