Laboratory investigation and prediction of permeability of fresh to five-year-old municipal solid wastes of low and high food contents

Yuekai Xie; Jianfeng Xue

doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2024.05.005

Laboratory investigation and prediction of permeability of fresh to five-year-old municipal solid wastes of low and high food contents

Waste Manag. 2024 May 11:183:101-111. doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2024.05.005. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Yuekai Xie¹, Jianfeng Xue²

Affiliations

¹ School of Engineering and Technology, University of New South Wales, Canberra, ACT 2612, Australia. Electronic address: yuekai.xie@unsw.edu.au.
² School of Engineering and Technology, University of New South Wales, Canberra, ACT 2612, Australia.

PMID: 38735093
DOI: 10.1016/j.wasman.2024.05.005

Abstract

The permeability of municipal solid wastes (MSWs) is important for the design and operation of landfills. This study presented the experimental investigation of the permeability of low food content- (LF-) and high food content- (HF-) MSWs prepared in laboratory-scale bioreactors for up to 5 years. The permeability of MSWs with diverse degrees of decomposition (DOBs), void ratios, and permeation liquids was measured (288 tests). The measured permeability was compared to that predicted from the (modified) Kozeny-Carman (K-C) equations in four different forms. The results indicated that the permeability of both LF- and HF-MSWs decreased significantly (p < 0.05) with decomposition under a given void ratio. The predicted permeability using the original K-C equation fitted well with that of fresh MSWs. The permeability of decomposed MSWs was closer to the predicted results using the modified K-C equation with the effective void ratio. This can be attributed to the increase in the fine fractions due to degradation. The reduction in the effective voids was more significant with HF-MSWs. The parameters required in the (modified) K-C equations showed a good correlation with DOB and effective particle size (d₁₀). The predicted permeability based on the relationship between DOB (or d₁₀) and equation parameters was within 3 times the difference compared to the measured values. The above results indicated that the modified K-C equation can be adopted to predict the permeability of fresh and degraded MSWs while more field-scale experiments should be conducted to further evaluate its feasibility.

Keywords: Degree of biodegradation; Effective void ratio; High food content municipal solid waste; Kozeny-Carman equation; Low food content municipal solid waste; Permeability.