Modelling the behaviour of mechanical biological treatment outputs in landfills using the GasSim model

The pretreatment of the biodegradable components of municipal solid waste (MSW) has been suggested as a method of reducing landfill gas emissions. Mechanical biological treatment (MBT) is the technology being developed to provide this reduction in biodegradability, either as an alternative to source segregated collection or for dealing with residual MSW which still contains high levels of biodegradable waste. The compost like outputs (CLOs) from MBT plants can be applied to land as a soil conditioner; treated to produce a solid recovered fuel (SRF) or landfilled. In this study the impact that landfilling of these CLOs will have on gaseous emissions is investigated. It is important that the gas production behaviour of landfilled waste is well understood, especially in European member states where the mitigation of gaseous emissions is a legal requirement. Results of an experiment carried out to characterise the biodegradable components of pretreated biowastes have been used with the GasSim model to predict the long term emissions behaviour of landfills accepting these wastes, in varying quantities. The landfill directive also enforces the mitigation of potential methane emissions from landfills, and the ability of landfill operators to capture gaseous emissions from low emitting landfills of the future is discussed, as well as new techniques that could be used for the mitigation of methane generation.