Chapter five: Solid Waste Treatment and disposal

Introduction
 ideally the disposal methods should meet the following
condition:

 environment friendly
 cause no health hazard
 economically less demanding
 maximum recycling options
Should not be labour intensive

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 Waste Treatment
The preliminary treatment of solid waste prior to disposal includes:
 recycling
 compaction
 pulverization (size reduction)
 Disposal without treatment:
 dumping in water
 dumping on land
 direct disposal (sanitary landfill)
 Disposal involve some treatment
 incineration
 biological treatment
 pyrolysis
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  Landfill method

Define as the physical facilities used for the disposal of residual in the
surface soils of the earth.
Sanitary landfill refer to engineered facilities for the disposal of SW
designed and operated to minimize the public health and
environmental impacts
 One of the primary technologies use to disposal of solid waste.
 The most economically if suitable land is available at low cost, environmentally
accepted method and simple.
 The only method that can deal with all material in solid waste

 Direct disposal without treatment and Also used for the final disposal of treated
waste.
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 Landfill Planning, Design and operation

 The elements that should be consider in the planning , design

and operation of landfill are as below:
Landfill layout and design
Landfill operations and management
The reaction occurring in the landfill
The management of leachate
Environmental monitoring
Landfill closure

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Landfill siting consideration

 Siting of new landfill is one of the difficult tasks faced by the most
communities.
 Several factors must be consider in evaluating potential site for-
long term disposal of solid waste.
 Final selection of a disposal site usually is best on the result of a
detail site survey, engineering design, cost study and EIA.

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The factors should be considered in selection of landfill site are ;
Haul distance
Location restriction
Available land area
Site access
Soil condition and topography
Climatological conditions
Surface water hydrology
Geologic and hydrogeologic conditions
Local environmental conditions
Potential ultimate uses for the completed site

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• Transformation of solid waste
• Physical, chemical, and biological transformations
• physical
• component separation
• mechanical volume reduction (densification)
• mechanical size reduction
• chemical
• combustion (chemical oxidation)
• pyrolysis (destructive distillation)
• gasification
• biological :aerobic composting and anaerobic digestion

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 Reactions in landfill

Biological reactions
 The organic material in MSW lead to the production of landfill gas and
liquids.
 Decomposition process usually proceed aerobically for a short period.
 During aerobic decomposition, CO2 is the gas produced
 Once the available O2 has been consumed, the composition become
anaerobic and the organic matter converted to CO2 and CH4 and ammonia
and hydrogen Sulfide.

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Chemical Reaction
 Include dissolution and suspension of landfill materials and
biological conversion products in the liquid percolating, evaporation
and vaporization of chemical compound and water
 The organic compounds can subsequently be released into the
atmosphere – through the soil or from uncover leachate treatment
facility.
 Other chemical reactions include those between certain organic
compound and clay liner.

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 Physical reactions
 The important physical changes are:
the lateral diffusion of gases and emission of landfill gases to
surrounding environment
Movement of leachate within the landfill and into underlying
soil
Settlement caused by consolidation and decomposition of
landfill material
 Landfill gas movement and emission particularly important
consideration in landfill management because;

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 Internal pressure could causing the landfill cover crack and leak
Escaping landfill gas may carry trace carcinogenic and teratogenic
compounds into the environment
Because high CH4 contents, may be can cause burning or explosion
Leachate migration is another concern
Concerns with the landfill
 Uncontrolled release of landfill gas
 The impact of uncontrolled discharge of landfill gas
 Uncontrolled release of leachate
 The breeding of disease vector
 The health and the environmental impact
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 SANITARY LANDFILL FACILITIES

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 Landfill Type
aerobic landfill
anaerobic sanitary landfill with daily cover
improve anaerobic sanitary landfill with buried leachate collection
facilities
landfill with forced aeration
 Only the anaerobic and semi-aerobic landfill are desirable when
leachate and gas quality to be considered

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 Advantages
• In addition to provide an option for waste management, it also
serves to improve/ reclaim poor quality land.
• It raises the ground elevation/surface grade of the site.
Completed landfills have been converted to municipal parks,
playgrounds, golf courses, community land use projects.
• It is the most economical alternative for SW disposal which
accounts for its frequent application.
• Other disposal methods are not entirely safe and efficient
throughout the year.

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• Incineration is a costly process, residue requires ultimate disposal on
land.
• Composting is a seasonal option.
• It is not possible to reclaim and recycle all SW material.
• Thus landfilling is the most convenient option.
Disadvantage
 Difficult to find suitable site within economically feasible distance.
 It is not possible to build a completely safe and secure SW landfill.
Some of the pollutants may escape in the env in the form of leachate.
 Potential harm to public health due to air, soil, water and noise pollution
 Damage to local ecosystem.
 Public oppose

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 Disadvantages of Open dumping
potential source of disease
 fires are uncontrolled
 air pollution
 smell
 pollute nearby waterways & ground water
 ugly
 scavenging

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 Cont…

 destruction of habitats - (wetland)

 cause of urban land shortage
 transportation cost – (distant)
 lost of resources – cannot be replace
 leachate leakage - (groundwater contamination)
 maintenance after completion require 10 to 15 years
Non-available of suitable cover material

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  Level of Sanitary Landfill

 Level 1: control tipping

 Level 2: sanitary landfill with bound and daily soil cover
 Level 3: sanitary landfill with leachate recirculation
 Level 4: sanitary landfill with leachate treatment facilities.

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  Landfill Technology

 The most common landfill

technologies are
 area method
 trench method
 ramp method
 sandwich method

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Area method/Depression

These are provided where natural or man-made depressions are not

available and excavation is difficult. Waste materials are disposed off
on the ground surface. Waste is covered with a suitable material
usually a layer of soil. The cover material/soil is borrowed from some
other location.
 terrain is unsuitable for the excavation of trenches
Solid waste cells constructed in a large area
 layers of cells are created until the permitted height reached
 Each cell represents the waste received and compacted in place
and covered each day.
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Can accommodate very large volume operation
 Earth dyke with height of one lift (2-3 m) is first constructed to gate
the support for compacting.
 The wastes are unloaded at the top of the earth dyke and spread
and compacted on the slope of the dyke.
 The layers dept is from 30 – 60 cm.
Depression method best for area where natural depression exist.
 The installation liners and leachate collection system is relative easy.
 The earth cover of this system is usually obtain from borrow-pit or
brought from elsewhere
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• Area landfill

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 Trench Method

 solid waste is disposed off in trenches or depressions below the natural

ground level. These landfills are suitable for areas where natural or
man-made depressions are available and water table is very deep.
Earth is excavated where suitable natural depressions are not available.
The sides and base of trench landfill are lined with impermeable
materials to protect the groundwater

 Waste is spread and compacted in an excavated trench

 The excavator tailings are used as cover material
 Best for flat land where the excavation of trenches can be carryout
easily.
 The ground water level should be sufficiently low
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The trench size varies in length and
width:
 dept: 1–2m
 width: 2 – 5 m
 length:30 – 120 m
 Wastes are spread into thin layers
from 30 -60 cm and compacted
before soil cover in introduced.

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 Ramp method
 also call progressive slope.
 A combination of area method and trench method
 Solid waste is spread and compacted on a slope
 cover material is obtained directly from the front of the working face.
 The excavation of cover material provides a depression for the next
day waste.
Ramp is about 15 m wide and 30 m length and suitable height.
 Trucks come on the top of the ramp and discharge their contents
inside the trench

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 Sandwich method
 Used when the solid waste is deposited horizontally into narrow
valleys.
 Cover soil layer is added over each layer of solid waste

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 Modern Sanitary Landfill

incorporates
 gas collection, storage and compressor system
 leachate collection, storage and treatment facilities.
 prevent leachate leakage into ground water
gas leakage detection p robes.
 leachate monitoring well and ground water monitoring well

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 Design & operation SLF
 Several important factors must be considered:
 land area
 cover material
 cell design and construction
 equipment requirement
 personnel requirement
 finance
drainage

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 spread and compaction
 water supply
 fire prevention facilities
 fencing -
 gatehouse
 operation time
 land use after completion of landfill
 wheel cleaning
 notice board

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 Population protection
 site location
 rainfall
 temperature
Soil type
 wind
Hydrological properties and water table
compaction landfill
essential to reduce settlement
 take about 2 years
prevent fire
eliminates odour, flies & vermin
for building structure 10 – 12 years
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 ideally compacted fill should have density of 900 – 950 kg/m 3
 densities are measure by using backhoe method and auger method.
The values depend on:
 Type of waste
 Pretreatment
 Composting of waste
 Time of landfill
 Moisture content
 Type of landfill
 Stage of compaction
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 Leachate

define as liquid that has percolated through solid waste and has
extracted Dissolved or suspended material
average amount of leachate generated is 150L//tonne
contain organic matter, nitrogen (ammoniacal), suspended solid
salts & coloring matter.
concentration of eluted matters will be highest the first 3 – 8 years .

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 quantity of leachate produced depend on factors:
 Soil type
 Waste composition
 Degree of compaction
 Rainfall
 Evaporation
 Landfill type and age

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Leachate treatment facilities include:
 equalization tank
 biological treatment
 physicochemical treatment
 Biological treatment

 To remove the organic matter and nitrogen

 involve one or more of the following techniques:

 activated sludge treatment
 contact aeration
 rotary disc

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 deep shaft
 oxidation ditch
trickling filter
 aerated lagoon treatment
 anaerobic biodegradation
 an aerobic fixed film treatment

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 physicochemical treatment
 to removes/reduce COD, metal, suspended solid and
colour
 the process used are:
 sedimentation with coagulation
 sand filtration
 ozone oxidation
Activated carbon adsorption
Chelating resin adsorption

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 Landfill gas

 the microbial degradation generate gaseous products.

methane production begins several month to one/two years after

deposition
 the rate of production depends on:
 size and composition of solid waste
 age of solid waste and landfill

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 moisture content
 temperature conditions in landfill
quantity and quality of nutrients
 organic content of refuse
 pH and alkalinity of liquids
 presence of toxic or hazardous material
Gas production
gas production ranges from 1.3 to 1.7 L/kg/yr
 the main component of the gas is CH4 (55%), CO2 (45%),

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 Biological treatment

 Consists two main options

 Composting (aerobic)

 Bio gasification (anaerobic)

 Composting
Composting define as the biological degradation of the organic
components of waste under controlled condition to produce a stable
end product call compost

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 Objectives of biotreatment:

Volume reduction
Stabilization
Sanitisation
Vaporization

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 composting of organic material generates CO2 and H2O and
compost
 Biogasification generates CH4 , CO2, and H2O and sludge.
 The final products of biotreatment are stable & could be use
as fertilizer.
 Composting is an exothermic process & max. temperature 60
-700C

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Biodegradation of solid waste could be describe under four phases:
 the aerobic phase
 hydrolysis and fermentation
 anaerobic phase
 decelerated methane production

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 Phase I: The aerobic phase

 in the presence of O2,

 oxygen & nitrogen are depleted while CO2 increases

 The phase lasts only a few days

 Phase II: Hydrolysis and fermentation (acid phase)

 transition phase in which oxygen is depleted and anaerobic conditions starts
developing.
 Anaerobic conversion of nitrates and sulfates to N2 and H2S ,fatty acids,Co2, H2

 Phase III: Anaerobic phase (initial methane generation)

 beginning of methane generation
 bacteria (methanogens) responsible for degradation substances.
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 organic acids and hydrogen gas formed during phase II are
convened into methane and carbon dioxide
 Phase IV: stable methane generation characterized 50-60%
methane production and low concentration of hydrogen.
 Phase v: air intrusion
Due to biodegradation of organic wastes the volume of wastes
reduced and wastes in the landfill undergo consolidation and
sttlement. And reduction of methane generation
Phase VI: methane oxidation
Methane oxidation to co2

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 decelerated methane production
 concentrations of carboxylic acid decreases to below 100 mg/l.
 Gas monitoring
 involve the monitoring of methane and other volatile organic
compound.
 Monitoring wells are installed within and around the landfill.
 Two type of gas monitoring device can be use.
barhole probe
permanent probe

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 Barhole probe
perform near structure or along the parameter of a landfill.
only obtain one time measurement of gas concentration at
shallow depths.
 permanent probe
 located along the parameter of the landfill at location identify
during the hydrogeology investigation
 Periodically gas samples collected from these wells are analyzed
for methane contain & and other gas.

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 INCINERATION
A Control process for burning solid, liquid and gaseous combustible
wastes to gases and residue containing non-combustible material.
is any facility used wholly or in part for the controlled combustion of
municipal wastes and other waste.
 waste materials are treated at incinerator plants through the
controlled application of that converts waste feed by high temperature
oxidation to gaseous material.
 during combustion the moisture is vapourised while the combustible
waste is also vapourised and oxidised.
final products are CO2, water vapour, ash, and non-combustible or
residue.
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 Objectives of thermal treatment
volume reduction
 reduces 90% MSW
 reduces 70% of weight
 life span of a landfill could be longer

Waste stabilisation

 outputs from the incinerator are ash, flue gas and combustible
residue.
 the output generally inert and more stable when landfill.
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 Waste to energy conversion

 reduce the usage of fossil and fuel

Conversion of natural resources.

Sanitisation of waste

 high temperature (800 – 11000C)

outlet 210 -230oC

 kill all the pathogen – important in the clinical/hospital waste.

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