Chapter Six - Novel Landfilling for Leachate and Methane Control and Treatment of Sewage and Feedlot Wastewaters Using Aged Refuse Bioreactor

Abstract

A novel landfill, functional layer embedded landfill, was developed to reduce the leachate strength from the landfill in site. The functional layers will positively influence the landfill stabilization processes greatly by reducing the pollutants discharge from the landfill into the environment. The layer compositions were a mixture of clay, waste iron sand, cement, calcium oxide, and hydrophilic organic polymer, with the percentage of 65–70%, 25–30%, 0%, 0%, and 5–10% in layer 1, and 60–70%, 25–30%, 2–5%, 3–5%, and 0% (w%) in layer 2, respectively. The R2 was also inserted by two layers, which consisted of clay and sand with the same height, and served as a control column. The cumulative chemical oxygen demand (COD), NH3N, leachate quantity, and landfill settlement in LR1 was 63.0%, 34.6%, 94.8%, and 80.4% of that in LR2 in the entire test periods, while the leachate effluents from these two reactors presented almost the same concentration at the end of the operation period. A bioreactor consisting of aged refuse was used for the treatment of sewage with various pollutant concentrations, and the resultant effluent parameters reached COD <100mg/L, ammonium-N <15mg/L, and total p<0.5mg/L, with a removal of NH3N over 99.5%. The aged reactor is also used for the treatment of livestock and poultry wastewaters from a farm, in which COD, biological oxygen demand (BOD), NH3N concentrations and color were greatly reduced, with over 99% NH3N removal and COD to below 300mg/L and BOD 100mg/L. Biodegradation was the predominant mechanism for the removal of pollutants in the bioreactor. The bioreactor developed is innovative and cost-effective and can be used for effective treatment of sewage and livestock and poultry wastewaters from a farm, especially as a small-scale installation, and has been applied widely.