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Florida Bioreactor Demonstration Project
Final Report

Table of Contents
 


Executive Summary
 

Volume 1 – Overview
 

1-1

1.1 Introduction
 

1-1

1.2 Projects Goals
 

1-1

1.3 Project Sites
 

1-2

1.3.1 New River Regional Landfill
 

1-2

1.3.2 Tomoka Farm Road Landfill
 

1-2

1.3.3 Polk County North Central Landfill
 

1-3

1.3.4 Alachua County Southwest Landfill
 

1-3

1.3.5 Highlands County Landfill
 

1-4

1.4 Objectives on the Work Plan
 

1-5

1.5 Organization of the Deliverables of the Florida Bioreactor Demonstration Project
 

Attachment  Volume 1 – Bioreactor Project Work Plan
 

Volume 2– Deliverables to Meet Work Plan Objective 1:  Design and Operate the Bioreactor Using Innovative Techniques’ and Concepts
 

2-1

2.1 Work Plan Objective and Deliverables

 

2-1

2.2 Innovative Research Techniques and Concepts Used in Florida Bioreactor Landfills

 

2-4

2.3 Site Description of New River Regional Landfill (NRRL)

 

2-7

2.4 Construction Process with Timeline

 

2-9

2.5 Permit Processes for the Bioreactor

 

2-10

2.6 Construction Details

 

2-11

2.6.1 Description of Vertical Well System at the NRRL

 

2-18

2.6.2 Gas Collection System and Toe Drain   

 

2-22

2.6.3 Description of eachate collection manholes

 

2-26

2.6.4 Installation of In-Situ Instrumentation

 

2-28

2.6.4.1 Pressure transducers

 

2-29

2.6.4.2 Earth Pressure Cells

 

2-32

2.6.4.3 In-Situ Moisture Content Instrumentation

 

2-40

2.6.4.4 Temperature

 

2-42

2.6.4.5 Pore Water Pressure

 

2-47

2.7 Summary and Conclusion

 


Volume 3 – Deliverables to meet work plan objective 2: Design and Operate the Bioreactor in a Manner to Control and Measure All Major Inputs and Outputs
 

3-1

 3.1 Objective 2 of the project work plan
 

3-1

 3.2 Major Inputs and Outputs of the Bioreactor
 

3-2

3.3 Major Input Parameters For The Operation Of A Bioreactor

 

3-2

3.3.1 Moisture Addition

 

3-4

3.3.2 Air Addition

 

3-8

3.4 Operation of the Bioreactor

 

3-12

3.5 Major Output Parameters For The Operation Of A Bioreactor

 

3-12

3.5.1 Leachate Generated at the Leachate Collection System

 

3-12

3.5.1.1 Measurement of Leachate Quantity

 

3-14

3.5.1.2 Measurement of Leachate Quality

 

3-15

3.5.2 Landfill gas generated from the surface of the landfill and from the manholes
 

3-16

3.5.2.1 Sizing of the blowers

 

3-17

3.5.1.2 Measurement of gas production and control of gas quality

 

3-18

3.5.3 Temperature of the waste in the landfill

 

3-20

3.5.4 Settlement of the waste

 

3-21

3.5.5 Moisture content using TDR and MTG sensors

 

3-22

3.6 Conclusion

 


VOLUME 4 – Deliverables to Meet Work Plan Objective 3: Evaluate the Use of Aerobic Bioreactor landfill Technology and Compare the Aerobic Approach to the Use of Anaerobic Bioreactor Technology

 

4-1

4.1 Work Plan Objective and Deliverables

 

4-1

4.2 Use of Aerobic Bioreactor Landfill Technology

 

4-1

4.3 General Description of Aerobic Bioreactor Landfill Technology

 

4-4

4.4 Flammability of Landfill Gas

 

4-5

4.4.1 Composition of Landfill Gases

 

4-5

4.4.2 Anaerobic and Aerobic Landfill Gas

 

4-6

4.4.3 Flammability Limits of Methane

 

4-8

4.4.4 Air addition Test – Pilot Scale Lysimeter Installed in Polk County Landfill

 

4-11

4.4.5 Conclusions

 

4-11

4.5 Research on air addition to New River Regional Bioreactor Landfills

 

4-11

4.5.1 Field Tests I (2005) – Changes in Landfill Gas Quality as a Result of Controlled Air Injection

 

4-12

4.5.1.1 Experimental Site Description

 

4-13

4.5.1.2 Air Addition Test

 

4-14

4.5.1.3 Monitoring

 

4-14

4.5.1.4 Analytical Results

 

4-19

4.5.1.5 Findings

 

4-20

4.5.2 Field Tests II (2005) – Radial Influence and Temperature Dynamics of Air Addition

 

4-22

4.5.2.1 Radial Impact of Air Injection

 

4-23

4.5.2.2 Continuous Injection Temperature Control

 

4-23

4.5.2.3 Effects of Radial Air Injection on Gas Composition and Pressure
 

4-27

4.5.2.4 Effects of Continuous Air Injection on Temperature

 

4-28

4.5.2.5 Practical Implications

 

4-29

4.5.3 Field Tests III (2007)

 

4-38

4.6 Comparison of Aerobic Bioreactor Landfill to Anaerobic Bioreactor Landfill (Lysimeter Study)

 

4-38

4.6.1 General Description of the Lysimeter

 

4-42

4.6.2 Fabricated Waste Stream

 

4-44

4.6.3 Air Addition

 

4-46

4.6.4 Application of Overburden Pressure

 

4-48

4.6.5 Leachate and Gas Quality

 

4-53

4.6.6 Settlement

 

4-58

4.6.7 Heavy metals

 

4-64

4.7 Summary and Conclusions

 


VOLUME 5 – Deliverables to Meet Work Plan Objective 4: Instrument the Landfill Bioreactor to Permit In-situ Monitoring of Bioreactor Activity and to Measure Previously Unmeasured Information

 

5-1

5.1 Work Plan Objective and Deliverables
 

5-1

5.2 Innovative use of Instrumentation for the Project
 

5-3

5.3 Head on the Liner
 

5-6

5.3 Earth Pressure Cell
 

5-9

5.4 In-situ Moisture Measurements
 

5-9

5.4.1 Laboratory study and calibration of MTC sensors
 

5-9

5.4.1.1 Testing sensitivity with varying packing media size and liquid electrical conductivity
 

5-12

5.4.1.2 Sensor calibration
 

5-13

5.4.2 Field Application
 

5-13

5.4.2.1 Electrical resistance-based sensors
 

5-18

5.4.2.2 TDR sensors
 

5-20

5.4.2.3 TDR vs. MTG
 

5-21

5.5 Temperature Measurements
 

5-27

5.6 Summary and Conclusions
 


VOLUME 6 – Deliverables to Meet Work Plan Objective 5: Monitor the Bioreactor in a Manner to Measure the Impact of Bioreactor Activities and to Allow Control of the Waste Treatment Process
 

6-1

6.1 Work Plan Objective and Deliverables
 

6-1

 6.2 Impact of Bioreactor Activities on Leachate Quality and Waste Stabilization
 

6-3

6.3 Monitoring Leachate Quality

 

6-6

6.3.1 Leachate quality of simulated bioreactors
 

6-8

6.3.2 Leachate quality of full scale bioreactor
 

6-18

6.4 Gas Quality and Gas Generation

 

6-18

6.4.1 Gas quality of aerobic and anaerobic bioreactors
 

6-20

6.4.2 Trace components of aerobic and anaerobic exhausts from the bioreactor
 

6-24

6.4.3 Gas production in the NRRL bioreactor
 

6-26

6.5 Solid Waste Characterization

 

6-26

6.5.1 Solid waste sampling
 

6-32

6.5.2 Solid waste characterization
 

6-35

6.5 Landfill Settlement
 

6-42

6.6 Summary and Conclusions
 


VOLUME 7 – Deliverables to Meet Work Plan Objective 6: Collect Data Through Instrumentation; Field Monitoring, and Laboratory Analysis That Will Enable the Project Team to Assess the Success of the Project, the Feasibility of This Technology for Other Sites, and to Enable the Future Design and Operation of Landfill Bioreactors in Florida

 

7-1

7.1 Work Plan Objective and Deliverables

 

7-1

7.2 Assessment of Bioreactor Landfill Performance

 

7-2

7.3 Waste Decomposition

 

7-2

7.3.1 Waste characteristics

 

7-6

7.3.2 Biochemical methane potential (BMP) assay results

 

7-13

7.3.3 Conclusions

 

7-15

7.4 Waste Decomposition Rate

 

7-18

7.5 Leachate Quality as an Indicator of Bioreactor Performance

 

7-24

7.6 Settlement

 

7-28

7.7 Feasibility of Air addition

 

7-28

7.7.1 Effect of continuous air injection on temperature

 

7-29

7.7.2 Landfill gas flammability

 

7-32

7.8 Estimation of Hydraulic Conductivity

 

7-33

7.8.1 Borehole tests

 

7-33

7.8.2 Hydraulic conductivity determination from field test

 

7-36

7.8.3 Conclusions

 

7-37

7.9 Conclusions and Summary

 


VOLUME 8 – Deliverables to Meet Work Plan Objective 7: Develop Standardized Design and Operation Procedures for this Technology
 

8-1

8.1 Objective 7 of the project work plan

 

8-1

8.2 Design and Operation of Bioreactor landfills

 

8-1

8.3 Design procedures

 

8-3

8.4 Design of vertical wells eachate recirculation system
 

8-3

8.4.1 Mathematical modeling of fluid flow through vertical wells

 

8-9

8.4.2 Type of vertical well system

 

8-10

8.5 Simulation and application of a multiphase microbiological and chemical kinetic-and-equilibrium model for simulating solid waste biodegradation

 

8-10

8.5.1 Anaerobic Biodegradation of Solid Waste

 

8-11

8.5.2 Nitrification and Denitrification Processes

 

8-13

8.6 Standard bioreactor operating procedure

 

8-14

8.6.1 Best time to start a bioreactor

 

8-14

8.6.2 Bioreactor Fundamentals

 

8-16

8.6.3 Moisture addition
 

8-17

8.6.4 Air Addition
 

8-19

8.6.5 Landfill Gas Extraction
 

8-20

8.6.6 Monitoring Parameters for Bioreactor Landfills
 

8-23

8.6.7 Concerns during the operation of a bioreactor
 

8-24

8.6.8 Bioreactor Closure
 

8-25

8.7 Summary and Conclusion
 

Attachment Volume 8 – Bioreactor Landfill Operation - A Guide For Development, Implementation and Monitoring
 


VOLUME 9 - Deliverables to Meet Work Plan Objective 8: Further Define and Quantify the True Costs and Benefits of Landfill Bioreactors

 

9-1

9.1 Work Plan Objective and Deliverables
 

9-2

9.2 Introduction
 

9-3

9.3 Model Description
 

9-6

9.3.1 Construction and operation and monitoring costs
 

9-8

9.3.2 Closure and post-closure care period costs
 

9-9

9.3.3 Leachate treatment costs and savings
 

9-10

9.3.4 Gas generation, collection, and utilization costs and benefits
 

9-11

9.3.5 Air injection costs
 

9-12

9.3.6 Airspace recovery benefits
 

9-12

9.4 Model Inputs
 

9-13

9.5 Discussion of Results
 

9-15

9.5.1 Influence of aeration duration on bioreactor landfill economics
 

9-18

9.5.2 Leachate treatment
 

9-20

9.5.3 Gas recovery for subsequent use
 

9-23

9.5.4 Air space recovery
 

9-23

9.5.5 Post-closure care periods
 

9-24

9.6 Conclusions
 

9-26

9.7 References
 

Attachment Volume 9 – Cost Analysis of Aerobic Bioreactor Landfill
 

Attachment Volume 9 – Cost Analysis of Hybrid Bioreactor Landfill – As-Built
 

Attachment Volume 9 – Cost Analysis of Hybrid Bioreactor Landfill – Retrofit
 

Attachment Volume 9 – Cost Analysis of Traditional Landfill

 


VOLUME 10 - Deliverables to Meet Work Plan Objective 9: Provide a Resource and Training Ground for Students in the State University System, Landfill Operators, and Engineers in Florida

 

10-1

10.1 Work Plan Objective and Deliverables
 

10-1

10.2 Knowledge Dissemination
 

10-2

10.3 Educational Contribution for Students in SUS
 

10-6

10. 4 Bioreactor Workshops
 

10-7

10.5 Presentation of the Project to the Solid Waste Community in Florida
 

10-8

10.6 Bioreactor Operation Guide for Operators and Landfill Engineers
 

10-9

10.7 Summary and Conclusions
 


APPENDIX A Permit Application Documents and Drawings
 

APPENDIX B Construction Photos (not available online)
 

APPENDIX C Theses and Dissertations
 

APPENDIX D Peer-Reviewed Journal Aricles and Conference Proceedings
 

APPENDIX E Presentation Materials
 

APPENDIX F Raw Data
 

APPENDIX G Periodic and Technical Reports
 

APPENDIX H Bioreactor Workshops