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Project properties |
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| Title | Long-term trends in leachate contaminant concentrations of bioreactor landfills |
| Group | Soil Chemistry and Chemical Soil Quality |
| Project type | thesis |
| Credits | 36-39 |
| Supervisor(s) | Frank van Raffe; Nick Quist |
| Examiner(s) | Rob Comans |
| Contact info | frank.vanraffe@wur.nl |
| Begin date | 2023/02/01 |
| End date | |
| Description | Landfills pose a large threat to the human health & environment (HHE), both through gaseous emissions and through the release of contaminant-rich leachate to the underlying soil. Traditionally landfills are sealed to restrict these emissions, yet this is a costly endeavour: the waste remains unchanged and thus seals need to be replaced and leachate needs to be monitored and treated indefinitely. An alternative approach is to instead treat landfills as bioreactors, stimulating biodegradation through flushing and aeration and thereby ultimately reducing their emissions until they are no longer a threat to the HHE. The effects of this ‘active treatment’ are currently being investigated on a landfill scale at three different locations in the Netherlands. Of major importance is the change in leachate contaminant concentrations, as these should adhere to previously derived criteria. As such, leachate concentrations are frequently monitored, which has resulted in a large data set
The aim of this thesis is to delineate how contaminant concentrations and environmental parameters have been changing during the past 5 years of ‘active treatment’. This is predominantly done through statistical analysis of the dataset and geochemical modelling. Additionally, lab-scale bioreactor landfills are currently being set-up. These bioreactors are filled with waste of the investigated landfills, with the aim of accelerating the active treatment and providing indications on the effectiveness of the active treatment, while simultaneously providing more detailed information on the governing mechanisms behind the changes in leachate concentrations. During the thesis, data will be acquired from these bioreactors and compared with the in-situ measured leachate data. |
| Used skills | - Data processing
- Laboratory work - Geochemical modelling |
| Requirements | See: https://ssc.wur.nl/Handbook/Course/SOC-81336 |