VOCs emission from a final landfill cover system induced by ground surface air temperature and barometric pressure fluctuation

Qiao Wang; Haijian Xie; Yingfei Peng; Arif Mohammad; Devendra Narain Singh

doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2023.122391

VOCs emission from a final landfill cover system induced by ground surface air temperature and barometric pressure fluctuation

Environ Pollut. 2023 Nov 1:336:122391. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2023.122391. Epub 2023 Aug 24.

Authors

Qiao Wang¹, Haijian Xie², Yingfei Peng³, Arif Mohammad⁴, Devendra Narain Singh⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of Resource and Environmental Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, 230009, China.
² College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University, 866 Yuhangtang Rd., Hangzhou, 310058, China; Center for Balance Architecture, Zhejiang University, 148 Tianmushan Road, Hangzhou, 310007, China. Electronic address: xiehaijian@zju.edu.cn.
³ College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University, 866 Yuhangtang Rd., Hangzhou, 310058, China.
⁴ School of Engineering, Cardiff University, Queen's Buildings, The Parade Cardiff CF24 3AA, UK.
⁵ Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, 400076, India.

PMID: 37633438
DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2023.122391

Abstract

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emission flux and their concentration profiles were measured at a final municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill cover in Hangzhou, China. The influencing parameters, especially ground surface air temperature and pressure were monitored concomitantly. Furthermore, a numerical model incorporating coupled thermo-hydro-chemical interaction to assess VOCs emission from this final landfill cover (LFC) system was developed and validated with the field test results. The tested total VOC emission flux from the final cover is 0.0124 μg/m²/s, which indicates that the total amount of VOCs emitted into the atmosphere is 391 mg/m² annually. Among these, dichloromethane (DCM) dominated VOCs emission flux during May, comprising 51.8% of the total emission flux. The numerical simulation results indicated that the diffusive emission flux of VOCs varied consistently with the fluctuation of atmospheric temperature. Whereas, the advective flux varied inversely with the fluctuation of barometric pressure. The highest difference in diffusive emission flux induced by temperature variation is 183 μg/m²/day and occurred in spring. Moreover, the results demonstrated that the impact of atmospheric temperature and pressure fluctuation on the emission of VOC from final covers is non-negligible when reasonably assessing the risks of landfill and landfill gas emission budget.

Keywords: Barometric pressure; Cover-atmosphere system; Emission flux; Ground surface air temperature; Landfill cover; Volatile organic compounds.

MeSH terms

Air Pollutants* / analysis
Refuse Disposal* / methods
Temperature
Volatile Organic Compounds* / analysis
Waste Disposal Facilities

Substances

Volatile Organic Compounds
Air Pollutants