Determination of oxygen consumption for landfilled municipal solid wastes

One of the serious problems of landfilling is the long time required for stabilisation. Nevertheless, site aeration proved to be effective to attenuate such problems. Oxygen consumption rate and air permeability/diffusion are the key parameters to set up the best allocation and design for vertical pipes to promote aeration and hence stabilisation of waste. This paper presents an investigation into the oxygen consumption for various landfilled wastes in Japan such as incineration ash, incombustible waste and under-sieve fraction of shredded bulky waste. Fresh waste sampled directly from processing facilities, as well as old waste sampled from landfill sites, were subjected to analytical determination and measurement of oxygen consumption. Bulky waste showed the highest oxygen consumption, however the old waste revealed a significant loss of biodegradability potential and lower oxygen consumption records. The oxygen consumption for short testing periods (10-days), tends to increase with the ignition loss (IL). The experimental data of respiratory tests (for old waste) were modelled and the fitting parameters are correlated to waste characteristics.