Effects of a temporary HDPE cover on landfill gas emissions: multiyear evaluation with the static chamber approach at an Italian landfill.
According to the European Landfill Directive 1999/31/EC and the related Italian Legislation ("D. Lgs. No. 36/2003"), monitoring and control procedures of landfill gas emissions, migration and external dispersions are clearly requested. These procedures could be particularly interesting in the operational circumstance of implementing a temporary cover, as for instance permitted by the Italian legislation over worked-out landfill sections, awaiting the evaluation of expected waste settlements. A possible quantitative approach for field measurement and consequential evaluation of landfill CO(2), CH(4) emission rates in pairs consists of the static, non-stationary accumulation chamber technique. At the Italian level, a significant and recent situation of periodical landfill gas emission monitoring is represented by the sanitary landfill for non-hazardous waste of the "Fano" town district, where monitoring campaigns with the static chamber have been annually conducted during the last 5 years (2005-2009). For the entire multiyear monitoring period, the resulting CO(2), CH(4) emission rates varied on the whole up to about 13,100g CO(2) m(-2)d(-1) and 3800 g CH(4) m(-2)d(-1), respectively. The elaboration of these landfill gas emission data collected at the "Fano" case-study site during the monitoring campaigns, presented and discussed in the paper, gives rise to a certain scientific evidence of the possible negative effects derivable from the implementation of a temporary HDPE cover over a worked-out landfill section, notably: the lateral migration and concentration of landfill gas emissions through adjacent, active landfill sections when hydraulically connected; and consequently, the increase of landfill gas flux velocities throughout the reduced overall soil cover surface, giving rise to a flowing through of CH(4) emissions without a significant oxidation. Thus, these circumstances are expected to cause a certain increase of the overall GHG emissions from the given landfill site.
Department of Earth and Geological-Environmental Sciences, University of Bologna, Piazza Porta San Donato 1, 40126 Bologna, Italy.
Bruno
B
Capaccioni
Cristina
C
Caramiello
Fabio
F
Tatàno
Alessandro
A
Viscione
D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D000397:Air Pollution / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000032:analysis; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D007558:Italy; D008697:Methane / Q000032:analysis; D020959:Polyethylene; D012037:Refuse Disposal / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000379:methods*; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry
D000393:Air Pollutants; D012987:Soil; D002245:Carbon Dioxide; D020959:Polyethylene; D008697:Methane