Mette Christophersen

Lateral gas transport in soil adjacent to an old landfill: factors governing emissions and methane oxidation.

Field investigations of lateral gas transport and subsequent emissions in soil adjacent to an old landfill in Denmark have been conducted during a one-year period. A significant seasonal variation in the emissions with high carbon dioxide and low methane fluxes in the summer (May to October) was observed. This was attributed to methane oxidation. Diurnal measurements during a drop in barometric pressure showed that the fluxes of landfill gas changed dramatically within a very short time. The concentrations and the soil moisture content in the upper part of the soil profile had significant influence on the fluxes, as did the distance from the landfill border, temperature, barometric pressure and the pressure gradient. Statistical analyses proved that soil moisture described the largest part of the variation. No methane at all emitted during the summer. Calculations and isotope analyses showed that very high fractions of the laterally migrating methane were oxidised.

Composition of leachate from old landfills in Denmark

The Danish counties have performed numerous investigations of old landfills. These investigations have been presented in several reports, but no comprehensive summary of the findings has been carried out. The objective of this study was to evaluate the typical composition of leachates from old smaller landfills by a comprehensive review of the investigations carried out by the counties. In total 106 landfills were selected by criteria avoiding dilution effects. A database was constructed using a standard program. Statistical evaluations showed that the leachate concentrations in general decreased with the age of the landfill, and that the leachate concentrations were lower than found in other similar studies.

Lateral gas transport in soil adjacent to an old landfill: factors governing gas migration

Field experiments investigating lateral gas transport in soil adjacent to an old landfill in Denmark during a one-year period were conducted. A significant seasonal variation, with low concentrations of methane and high concentrations of carbon dioxide in the summer, caused by methane oxidation was observed. There was a good correlation between pressure above the barometric pressure and the methane concentration in the soil, indicating that advective flow was the controlling process. This was confirmed by calculations. Diurnal measurement during a drop in barometric pressure showed that lateral migration of landfill gas was a very dynamic system and the concentrations of LFG at a specific place and depth changed dramatically within a very short time. The experiments showed that change in barometric pressure was an important factor affecting gas migration at the Skellingsted landfill in Denmark.

Microbial community response to petroleum hydrocarbon contamination in the unsaturated zone at the experimental field site Vaerløse, Denmark.

This study investigates the influence of petroleum hydrocarbons on a microbial community in the vadose zone under field conditions. An artificial hydrocarbon mixture consisting of volatile and semi-volatile compounds similar to jet-fuel was emplaced in a previously uncontaminated vadose zone in nutrient-poor glacial melt water sand. The experiment included monitoring of microbial parameters and CO(2) concentrations in soil gas over 3 months in and outside the hydrocarbon vapor plume that formed around the buried petroleum. Microbial and chemical analyses of soil and vadose zone samples were performed on samples from cores drilled to 3.3 m depth on three dates and three lateral distances from the buried petroleum mass. Significantly elevated CO(2) concentrations were observed after contamination. Total cell numbers as determined by fluorescence microscopy were strongly correlated with soil organic carbon and nitrogen content but varied little with contamination. Redundancy analysis (RDA) allowed direct analysis of effects of selected environmental variables or the artificial contamination on microbiological parameters. Variation in biomass and CO(2) production was explained by soil parameters, to 46%, and by the duration of contamination, to 39.8%. The microbial community structure was assessed by community level physiological profiles (CLPP) analysis using Biolog(TM) Eco-Plates. In the CLPP data only 35.9% of the variation could be linked to soil parameters and contamination, however, the samples with greatest exposure to hydrocarbons grouped together on RDA plots. It is concluded that, at this nutrient-poor site, the microbial community was dominated by natural heterogeneity and that the influence of petroleum hydrocarbon vapors was weak.

Relating landfill gas emissions to atmospheric pressure using numerical modelling and state-space analysis

Landfill gas (CO2 and CH4) concentrations and fluxes in soil adjacent to an old, unlined Danish municipal landfill measured over a 48-hour period during the passage of a low-pressure weather system were used to identify processes governing gas fluxes and concentrations. Two different approaches were applied: (I) State-space analysis was used to identify relations between gas flux and short-term (hourly) variations in atmospheric pressure. (II) A numerical gas transport model was fitted to the data and used to quantify short-term impacts of variations in atmospheric pressure, volumetric soil-water content, soil gas permeability, soil gas diffusion coefficients, and biological CH4 degradation rate upon landfill gas concentration and fluxes in the soil. Fluxes and concentrations were found to be most sensitive to variations in volumetric soil water content, atmospheric pressure variations and gas permeability whereas variations in CH4 oxidation rate and molecular coefficients had less influence. Fluxes appeared to be most sensitive to atmospheric pressure at intermediate distances from the landfill edge. Also overall CH4 fluxes out of the soil over longer periods (years) were largest during periods with rapidly decreasing atmospheric pressures resulting in emission of large amounts of CH4 during short periods of time. This effect, however, was less significant for the CO2 fluxes.