10. Innovative Bioreactor Landfill and Its Leachate and Landfill Gas Management

It is built and operated as a totally controlled chemical and environmental engineering aerobic bioreactor. In a typical aerobic bioreactor landfill, the solid waste is packed in the landfill cells as usual but is biologically treated with added liquid and air. The landfill’s leachate is removed from the bottom layer, piped to liquid storage tanks, and re-circulated into the landfill in a controlled manner. Air is injected into the waste mass using vertical or horizontal wells to promote aerobic activity and accelerate solid waste stabilization within the landfill cells.

An anaerobic bioreactor landfill is built and operated as a totally controlled chemical and environmental engineering anaerobic bioreactor. In a typical anaerobic bioreactor landfill, the solid waste is packed in the landfill cells as usual, but is biologically treated in the absence of oxygen. In an anaerobic bioreactor landfill, moisture is added to the waste mass in the form of re-circulated leachate and other sources to obtain optimal moisture levels. Since biodegradation occurs in the absence of oxygen (anaerobically), the landfill gas (LFG) is produced. LFG which contains primarily methane can be captured to minimize greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and can be used for energy projects.

It is an innovative municipal solid waste landfill (MSWLF) recently developed, evaluated, and promoted by the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). In a bioreactor landfill, liquids are added to help microorganisms break down the solid waste. An increase in waste degradation and stabilization is accomplished through the addition of liquid and air to enhance microbial processes. Entire bioreactor is operated as a totally controlled process reactor in which the solid waste is processed biologically, the emitted gas is collected, treated and reused, and the generated leachate is recycled to the bioreactor for reprocessing. Not only the air pollution problem of landfill gas (LFG) and the water pollution of leachate are under control, but also the solid waste is processed in a much shorter detention time, so the landfill’s operating life is almost doubled.

A dry tomb landfill is a traditional municipal landfill that does not intentionally add liquids to the landfill to accelerate the decomposition process of municipal solid waste (MSW). Its main goal is to keep liquids out of a traditional sanitary landfill.

The hybrid bioreactor landfill is a combination of the aerobic bioreactor landfill and the anaerobic bioreactor landfill which accelerates waste degradation by employing a sequential aerobic–anaerobic treatment to rapidly degrade organics in the upper aerobic sections of the landfill and collect gas from lower anaerobic sections. Operation as a hybrid results in the earlier onset of methanogenesis compared to aerobic landfills.

It is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with about 170 member states. The member states regularly discuss and decide UNIDO’s guiding principles and policies in their sessions of the policymaking organs. The UNIDO’s mission is to promote a new humanity science of industrial ecology (IE) and accelerate inclusive and sustainable industrial development (ISID) in member states. Natural resources recovery, environmental sustainability, and proper management solid, liquid, and gaseous wastes are emphasized within ISID. The UNIDO’s programmatic focus is structured, as detailed in the UNIDO’s Medium-Term Program Framework 2018-2021, in four strategic priorities: (a) creating shared prosperity, (b) advancing economic competitiveness, (c) safeguarding the environment, and (d) strengthening knowledge and institutions. Since UNIDO is mainly assisting developing countries, so some industrialized countries which are the UN member states have refused to pay the UNIDO membership fees becoming the UNIDO member states.

It is an agency of the US government that sets and enforces national pollution-control standards. In 1970, President Richard Nixon created the USEPA to fix national guidelines and to monitor and enforce them. Functions of three federal departments (of the interior, of agriculture, and of health, education, and welfare) and of other federal bodies were transferred to the new agency. The USEPA was initially charged with the administration of the Clean Air Act (CAA) (1970), enacted to abate air pollution primarily from industries and motor vehicles; the Federal Environmental Pesticide Control Act (FEPCA) (1972); and the Clean Water Act (CWA) (1972), regulating municipal and industrial wastewater discharges and offering grants for installing wastewater collection and treatment facilities. By the mid-1990s, the USEPA was enforcing 12 major statutes, including laws designed to control uranium mill tailings; ocean dumping; safe drinking water; insecticides, fungicides, and rodenticides; solid wastes, hazardous wastes, industrial effluent pretreatment, and asbestos hazards in schools. The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) (1976) is the most important public law that creates the framework for the proper management of hazardous and non-hazardous solid waste. The RCRA law describes the solid waste management program mandated by the US Congress that gave USEPA authority to develop the RCRA program. In addition to the responsibility of enactment and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and rules, USEPA has also played its excellent leadership (XL) role in (a) developing new environmental technologies, environmental training programs, technical manuals, fact sheets, guidelines, Internet information platforms, and international programs assisting the developing countries; (b) giving construction grants to the municipalities for improving their environmental infrastructure; and (c) giving research grants to the universities and institutes for continuous environmental science and engineering investigations.