Effectiveness of aerobic pretreatment of municipal solid waste for accelerating biogas generation during simulated landfilling

doi:10.1007/s11783-018-1031-1

Front. Environ. Sci. Eng.

2018, Vol. 12

Issue (3) : 5 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-018-1031-1

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Effectiveness of aerobic pretreatment of municipal solid waste for accelerating biogas generation during simulated landfilling

Munawar Ali^1,², Junli Zhang³, Roberto Raga⁴, Maria Cristina Lavagnolo⁴, Alberto Pivato⁴, Xu Wang^1,², Yuanyuan Zhang¹, Raffaello Cossu⁴, Dongbei Yue^1,²(

)

¹. School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
². Key Laboratory for Solid Waste Management and Environment Safety (Tsinghua University), Ministry of Education of China, Beijing 100084, China
³. Solid waste and Chemical Management Centre, Ministry of Environmental Protection, Beijing 100029, China
⁴. DII, Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Padova, Via Marzolo 9, 35131 Padova, Italy

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Abstract

Effect of aerobic pretreatment of MSW on landfill gas generation was investigated.

Volatile solid (VS) loss of MSW is an effective and comparable indicator.

Chinese MSW requires at least a reduction of VS about 27% (w/w) prior to disposal.

Aerobic pretreatment of MSW reduced lag phase more than 90% before methanogenesis.

Aerobic pretreatment degree influences quantity of gas generation.

This study evaluates the effectiveness of aerobic pretreatment of municipal solid waste (MSW) on reducing lag phase and accelerating biogas generation. Aerobic pretreatment degree (APD) was determined on the basis of reduction in volatile solids (VS) on a wet weight basis. In this study, intermittent aeration (IA) was applied to three reactors as a main aeration mode; since a single reactor was operated under continuous aeration mode. However, the purpose of the experiment was to reduce VS content of waste, irrespective of the comparison between aeration modes. Fresh MSW was first pretreated aerobically with different aeration rates (10, 40, 60 and 85 L/min/m³) for the period of 30–50 days, resulting in VS-loss equivalent to 20%, 27%, 38% and 53% on w/w basis for the wastes A1, A2, A3 and A4, respectively. The cumulative biogas production, calculated based on the modified Gompertz model were 384, 195, 353, 215, and 114 L/kg VS for the wastes A0, A1, A2, A3 and A4, respectively. Untreated waste (A0) showed a long lag phase; whereas the lag phases of pretreated MSW were reduced by more than 90%. Aerobically pretreated wastes reached stable methanogenic phase within 41 days compared to 418 days for untreated waste. The waste mass decreased by about 8% to 27% compared to untreated MSW, indicative that even more MSW could be placed in the same landfill. The study confirmed the effectiveness of aerobic pretreatment of MSW prior to landfilling on reducing lag phase and accelerating biogas generation.

Keywords Municipal solid waste (MSW) Aerobic pretreatment degree (APD) Volatile solids (VS) Intermittent aeration (IA) Landfill gas Landfilling

Corresponding Author(s): Dongbei Yue

Issue Date: 10 June 2018

Cite this article:

Munawar Ali,Junli Zhang,Roberto Raga, et al. Effectiveness of aerobic pretreatment of municipal solid waste for accelerating biogas generation during simulated landfilling[J]. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2018, 12(3): 5.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/10.1007/s11783-018-1031-1
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/Y2018/V12/I3/5

Tab.1 Composition of MSW in various cities of China

Tab.2 Composition of untreated MSW sample^a)

Fig.1 Schematic of the reactor with changeable aerobic and anaerobic operations

Tab.3 Pretreatment operational modes of the reactors

Tab.4 Characteristics of waste before and after anaerobic treatment

Fig.2 Comparison of mass, density, and volume between aerobically pretreated and original MSW. The Y-axis indicates the normalized mass, density, and landfilling space demand of the aerobically pretreated waste compared with that of the untreated waste

Tab.5 Parameters of modified Gompertz model

Fig.3 Cumulative landfill gas generation during the anaerobic stage

Fig.4 NH₄⁺-N concentration in leachate of pretreated wastes during the anaerobic stage

Fig.5 NH₄⁺-N emission rates of pretreated wastes during the anaerobic stage

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