Search results for "Landfill"

Weathering of evaporites: natural versus anthropogenic signature on the composition of river waters

2015

Weathering of evaporites strongly influences the chemistry of continental runoff, making surface waters poorly exploitable for civil uses. In south-central Sicily, this phenomenon is worsened by the occurrence of abandoned landfills of old sulphur and salt mines. The industrial evolution of the Bosco-S. Cataldo mining site leaved two landfills from the early exploitation of a sulphur mine followed by that of a kainite deposit. In particular, the weathering of these landfills leads the dissolved salt (TDS) values up to about 200 g l−1 in the Stincone–Salito Stream waters. This process induces the V, Cr and Fe desorption from sediments and particulates in the aqueous phase under reducing cond…

Evaluating the Environmental Performance of Green Roofs by a Life Cycle Approach: an Application of the LCA Method on a Case Study in Italy

2011

Landfill gas upgrading with countercurrent water wash.

2006

A pilot-scale countercurrent absorption process for upgrading landfill gas to produce vehicle fuel was studied using absorption and desorption units and water as absorbent. The height-to-diameter ratio of the absorption column used was 3:1 instead of the more conventionally used 20:1 ratio, and a higher pressure was used along with a lower water flow rate. The effects of pressure (10-30 bar) and water and gas flow-ratios on the upgrading process were studied. Methane content in the product gas increased to near or above 90% with both gas flows (50 and 100 l/min) used at over 20 bar pressure with 10 l/min water flow and at 30 bar pressure with 5l/min water flow. Carbon dioxide content with t…

THE INFLUENCE OF LANDFILL FEATURES AND SIDE SLOPES ON METHANE EMISSION RATES

2011

Sanitary landfills for Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) disposal have been identified as one of the most important sources of methane (CH4) emissions; indeed, MSW contains a certain amount of biodegradable organic matter which undergoes anaerobic degradation resulting in the production of the so called landfill gas (LFG), which main component is typically represented by CH4. In general, LFG will escape through any faults in the landfill capping or in the LFG collection system. If the capping is not damaged, low quantities of LFG will be emitted through the permeable material that covers the disposed waste. On the other hand, some zones of the capping are often more permeable than others (e.g. si…

Do emissions from landfill fires affect pregnancy outcomes? A retrospective study after arson at a solid waste facility in Sicily

2019

ObjectivesIn response to public health concern about effects of arson at solid waste management plants in July 2012, we analysed vital statistics data to evaluate any potential effect on pregnancies at different gestational ages of pollutants emitted from the landfill on fire.SettingA community living near the largest landfill plant in Sicily.ParticipantsThe study group comprised 551 births, live births and stillbirths from pregnancies of mothers residing in the extra-urban exposed area, conceived during a 40 week period during which the highest fire’s peak might have influenced pregnancy.Primary and secondary outcome measuresBirth outcomes (gestational age <37 and <32 weeks, low birt…

The Influence of MSW Landfill Height in the Perched Leachate Formation

2012

During the last decades, the largest part of municipal solid waste (MSW) generated world wide has been disposed of in landfills without any pre-treatment. The main environmental impacts of such landfills, containing high amounts of biodegradable organic matter, are caused by emissions of liq-uid effluents and landfill gas. With no collection and treatment, leachates from landfills pollute groundwater and soils locally. Furthermore, besides the biological processes, many physical phe-nomena occur inside the landfill body which negatively affect landfill management. Indeed, the waste settlement inside the landfill body, with a consequent increase of its density, corresponds to a proportional …

Uncontrolled methane emissions from a MSW landfill surface: Influence of landfill features and side slopes

2013

Sanitary landfills for Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) disposal have been identified as one of the most important anthropogenic sources of methane (CH4) emissions; in order to minimize its negative effects on the environment, landfill gas (LFG) recovery is a suitable tool to control CH4 emissions from a landfill site; further, the measurement of CH4 emissions can represent a good way to evaluate the effectiveness of LFG recovering systems. In general, LFG will escape through any faults in the landfill capping or in the LFG collection system. Indeed, some areas of the capping can be more permeable than others (e.g. portions of a side slope), especially when considering a temporarily capped zone …

Evaluation of methane emissions from Palermo municipal landfill: Comparison between field measurements and models

2010

Methane (CH(4)) diffuse emissions from Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) landfills represent one of the most important anthropogenic sources of greenhouse gas. CH(4) is produced by anaerobic biodegradation of organic matter in landfilled MSW and constitutes a major component of landfill gas (LFG). Gas recovery is a suitable method to effectively control CH(4) emissions from landfill sites and the quantification of CH(4) emissions represents a good tool to evaluate the effectiveness of a gas recovery system in reducing LFG emissions. In particular, LFG emissions can indirectly be evaluated from mass balance equations between LFG production, recovery and oxidation in the landfill, as well as by a d…

Group-specific quantification of methanotrophs in landfill gas-purged laboratory biofilters by tyramide signal amplification-fluorescence in situ hyb…

2008

The aim of this study was to quantitatively analyse methanotrophs in two laboratory landfill biofilters at different biofilter depths and at temperatures which mimicked the boreal climatic conditions. Both biofilters were dominated by type I methanotrophs. The biofilter depth profiles showed that type I methanotrophs occurred in the upper layer, where relatively high O(2) and low CH(4) concentrations were present, whereas type II methanotrophs were mostly distributed in the zone with high CH(4) and low O(2) concentrations. The number of type I methanotrophic cells declined when the temperature was raised from 15 degrees C to 23 degrees C, but increased when lowered to 5 degrees C. A slight …

The role of the transportation phase for a green management of municipal solid waste

2017

Municipal solid waste management (MSWM) constitutes a high challenging issue to cope with to move towards sustainability of the urban policies. Despite new standards call for recycling and reusing materials contained in the city waste, several municipalities still use extensive landfills. Other than the environmental pressure exerted by these plants, the waste transportation from the recovery points of towns to landfills needs consideration to correctly assess the whole burden of the waste management. In this paper, the Ecological Footprint indicator is applied to the MSWM of the town of Palermo (Sicily). Results show that the effects produced by the involved transportation vehicles, both i…