Onsite survey on the mechanism of passive aeration and air flow path in a semi-aerobic landfill.

The semi-aerobic landfill is a widely accepted landfill concept in Japan because it promotes stabilization of leachates and waste via passive aeration without using any type of mechanical equipment. Ambient air is thought to be supplied to the landfill through a perforated pipe network made of leachate collection pipe laid along the bottom and a vertically erected gas vent. However, its underlying air flow path and driving forces are unclear because empirical data from real-world landfills is inadequate. The objective of this study is to establish scientific evidence about the aeration mechanisms and air flow path by an on-site survey of a full-scale, semi-aerobic landfill. First, all passive vents located in the landfill were monitored with respect to temperature level and gas velocity in different seasons. We found a linear correlation between the outflow rate and gas temperature, suggesting that air flow is driven by a buoyancy force caused by the temperature difference between waste in the landfill and the ambient temperature. Some vents located near the landfill bottom acted as air inflow vents. Second, we conducted a tracer test to determine the air flow path between two vents, by injecting tracer gas from an air sucking vent. The resulting slowly increasing gas concentration at the neighboring vent suggested that fresh air flow passes through the waste layer toward the gas vents from leachate collection pipes, as well as directly flowing through the pipe network. Third, we monitored the temperature of gas flowing out of a vent at night. Since the temperature drop of the gas was much smaller than that of the environment, the air collected at the gas vents was estimated to flow mostly through the waste layer, i.e., the semi-aerobic landfill has considerable aeration ability under the appropriate conditions.