Prediction of pollutant leaching from landfill

Abstract

Landfill is continued to be the most common approach to solid waste disposal. On contrary, landfill practice is still common with increase in water pollution due to leaching of pollutants.Leachate generation from landfill can be defined into two phases, firstly soluble salt produced due to aerobic decomposition or acetogenic phase and secondly methane and carbon dioxide due to anaerobic decomposition or methanogenic phase.Characterization of landfill leachate is used in design to achieve low hydraulic conductivity or decrease permeability as leachate percolating through the waste strata and most important is used to predict level of pollutant in leachate which depend on factors such as temperature, precipitation and waste age. It is therefore crucial for landfill design to take into consideration of factors affecting leachate quality.The purpose of this research is to develop a correlation relationship of factors affecting leachate quality to predict pollutants from landfill which are determined by temperature, precipitation and waste age. The objective of this research is to determine, based the relationship developed and calibration of data obtained from literature review, the optimization of design that reduce pollutants in leachate generated from landfill taking into consideration of basic factors of temperature, precipitation and waste age of landfill.Results of the study revealed that there is a good correlation of pollutants leaching from landfill to the factors of temperature, precipitation and waste age. Higher pollutant concentration is found in average age landfill than the mature age landfill site mainly due to transition from acetogenic phase to methanogenic phase of pollutant decomposition. It is also anticipated that as carbonaceous organic matter decrease in leachate, nitrogeneous organic matter removal is activated in the mature landfill.Using Multiple Regression Analysis Method, mathematic model known as Pollutant Prediction Model is developed to correlate relationship of pollutants to factor affecting leachate quality in the landfill site in terms of temperature, precipitation and waste age.