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Advancements in Operations of Bioreactor Landfills for Enhanced Biodegradation of Municipal Solid Waste

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Circular Economy in Municipal Solid Waste Landfilling: Biomining & Leachate Treatment

Part of the book series: Radionuclides and Heavy Metals in the Environment ((RHME))

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Abstract

Conventional sanitary landfills are of dry tomb type structures with entrapped storage of municipal solid waste (MSW) between the liner and cover layers, which facilitates long-term stabilization, limited gas recovery and unhygienic surroundings. However, various drawbacks pertaining to dry tomb landfilling reinforced the development of essential technologies to intensify biodegradation of MSW disposal in landfills. Bioreactor landfills (BRLs) are well known for overcoming such issues and enhancing the biodegradation of MSW with amplified landfill gas (LFG) generation. However, the efficiency of BRL system is compromised recently based on its shortcomings related to MSW degradation characteristics, inappropriate leachate recirculation and rigorous performance monitoring. Therefore, this chapter explores recent advanced methodologies adopted worldwide for BRL process intensification. Such advancements are classified according to their mode of utilization and stages of digestion phase in BRL system. Incorporation of aeration unit in BRL along with intermittent leachate recirculation has been proved to be advantageous over anaerobic BRL system. However, excessive aeration affects landfill capacity through an imbalance of waste mass settlement. Therefore, hybrid bioreactor system further enhances the MSW decomposition rate, LFG generation and leachate decontamination. Several biotechnological applications such as enzymatic amendment, inoculum addition with respective pros and cons are also discussed in detail.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi, India

    Abhishek N. Srivastava, Rahul Singh & Sumedha Chakma

  2. Faculty of Engineering Science, Department of Process, Energy, Environmental and Biotech Engineering, University of Wismar – University of Applied Sciences, Technology, Business, and Design, Wismar, Germany

    Rahul Singh & Volker Birke

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  1. Abhishek N. Srivastava
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  2. Rahul Singh
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  3. Sumedha Chakma
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  4. Volker Birke
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Correspondence to Abhishek N. Srivastava .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Science, SRM University Andhra Pradesh, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India

    Pankaj Pathak

  2. Environmental Biotechnology Laboratory Department of Biological Sciences, Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani, Hyderabad Campus, Hyderabad, Telangana, India

    Sankar Ganesh Palani

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Srivastava, A.N., Singh, R., Chakma, S., Birke, V. (2022). Advancements in Operations of Bioreactor Landfills for Enhanced Biodegradation of Municipal Solid Waste. In: Pathak, P., Palani, S.G. (eds) Circular Economy in Municipal Solid Waste Landfilling: Biomining & Leachate Treatment . Radionuclides and Heavy Metals in the Environment. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07785-2_7

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