Experimental percolation under intermittent conditions: Influence on pollutants emission from waste

Abstract

As a precautionary measure, the re-use (or landfill) of waste requires an environmental assessment of its potential impact. This assessment is usually made by simulating the emission of pollutants with a predictive model based on laboratory tests (standardised batch leaching tests, up-flow percolation tests, acid neutralisation capacity tests [CEN, Characterisation of Waste – Leaching – Compliance Test for Leaching of Granular Waste Materials and Sludges, European Committee for Standardisation (ECS), Brussels, 2002 [1]; CEN, prCEN/TS 14405 Characterisation of Waste – Leaching Behaviour Tests – Up-flow Percolation Test (under specified conditions), ECS, Brussels, 2002 [2]; CEN, prCEN/TS 14429 Characterisation of Waste – Leaching Behaviour Test – Influence of pH on Leaching with Initial Acid/base Addition, ECS, Brussels, 2003 [3]]. These tests are performed with simpler conditions than those occurring in the scenario of re-use (saturated media, permanent inflow …). In order to evaluate the relevance of these tests to be considered as a reference for predictive model, the purpose of this work is to determine how the intermittent hydrodynamic flow influences the pollutants release of unsaturated waste. As a result, we could estimate whether this parameter should be introduced in the model.