1,720,983 research outputs found
The influence of composting on heavy metal extractability from two municipal sewage sludges
No full textSIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:DXN023632 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo
Rubbish is piling up and recycling has stalled – waste systems must adapt
No full textCoronavirus has revealed just how fragile our waste cycle is. Globally, collection services are being reduced because of social distancing, staff absences and concerns about workers’ health and safety. This is affecting the collection, sorting, processing and treatment of wastes as well as markets for materials made from recycling and composts
A pilot-scale comparison of mesophilic and thermophilic digestion of source segregated domestic food waste
Full text linkSource segregated food waste was collected from domestic properties and its composition determined together with the average weight produced per household, which was 2.91 kg per week. The waste was fed over a trial period lasting 58 weeks to an identical pair of 1.5 m3 anaerobic digesters, one at a mesophilic (36.5°C) and the other at a thermophilic temperature (56°C). The digesters were monitored daily for gas production, solids destruction and regularly for digestate characteristics including alkalinity, pH, volatile fatty acid (VFA) and ammonia concentrations. Both digesters showed high VFA and ammonia concentrations but in the mesophilic digester the pH remained stable at around 7.4, buffered by a high alkalinity of 13,000 mg l-1; whereas in the thermophilic digester VFA levels reached 45,000 mg l-1 causing a drop in pH and digester instability. In the mesophilic digester volatile solids (VS) destruction and specific gas yield were favourable, with 67% of the organic solids being converted to biogas at a methane content of 58% giving a biogas yield of 0.63 m3 kg-1 VSadded. Digestion under thermophilic conditions showed potentially better VS destruction at 70% VS and a biogas yield of 0.67 m3 kg-1 VSadded, but the shifts in alkalinity and the high VFA concentrations required a reduced loading to be applied. The maximum beneficial loading that could be achieved in the mesophilic digester was 4.0 kg VS m-3 d-1
SWIMS Database input tables and example output results tables
No full textAssigned DOI: 10.5258/SOTON/D0382
Solid Waste Infrastructure Modelling System (SWIMS) complete input and lookup tables for use with NISMOD 1 version of SWIMS.
Complete results for model run 2740 reported within paper entitled "Solid Waste Infrastructure Modelling System (SWIMS): a dynamic optimisation and decision support tool for solid waste infrastructure management".
Model simulation was run within the Newcastle University servers for NISMOD 1 by Jon Coello. details of which are available "Hall, J.W., Tran, M., Hickford, A.J., Nicholls, R.J., 2016. The Future of National Infrastructure: A System-of-Systems Approach. Cambridge University Press."
Data is complete for all 11 GOR of GB.
All LCI data is derived from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) LCA software EASETECH and should be referenced accordingly when used : "Clavreul, J., Baumeister, H., Christensen, T.H., Damgaard, A., 2014. An environmental assessment system for environmental technologies. Environmental modelling & software 60, 18-30."
Nomenclature:
SW Solid Waste
I Input - standard inputs e.g. area
IO input output file - data required for following years e.g. staged infrastructure builds
LU Look Up - readily editable input file e.g. built facilities
O Output - Main results e.g. CO2e output from waste treatment.</span
Guidance on the management of landfill sites and land contamination on eroding or low-lying coastlines. Supplementary Guide.: CIRIA SP169
No full textThere are around 1500 historic landfills in England and Wales located in flood plains or in areas affected by coastal erosion. Rising sea levels may flood the landfills flushing pollutants into the environment whilst erosion could release waste onto beaches. Protection of coastal landfills is expensive and can be at odds with shoreline management plans which seek to allow natural processes to occur, or undertake managed realignment of the coastline wherever possible. The University of Southampton, together with academic colleagues, Local Authorities and the Environment Agency, has carried out research to understand these issues, identify gaps in research, and outline options to help manage the risks faced at coastal landfill sites. As a result of this research, The Construction Industry Research and Information Association (CIRIA) issued this supplementary guidance to Local Authorities and industry on the management of coastal landfill sites
The influence of solid-phase organic carbon on the sorption of hydrophobic organic pollutants in landfill barriers, UK
No full textThe Oxford Clay from Bletchley, the Kimmeridge Clay from Kimmeridge Bay, Dorset, and Tertiary mud (Wittering Formation) from Whitecliff, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom were used as sorbent samples because of their distinctive organic material characteristics (Amorphous organic matter rich and/or phytoclast rich). Organic material was isolated for identification and analysis using a non-acid extraction method (heavy liquid) extraction and traditional methods involving HF digestion. These organic materials were then used to determine influences of extraction on hydrophobic organic contaminants, (toluene and naphthalene) sorption. Organic petrology classification was applied to identify the various types of isolated organic material. Amorphous organic matter from the Kimmeridge Clay displayed a higher sorption capacity (Sorption–desorption distribution coefficient (Kd), Kd = 6,481, 59, 670; for toluene and naphthalene, respectively) compared to literature values. Amorphous organic matter-rich sorbent extracts demonstrated a higher absorption capacity than the phytoclast-rich sorbents (e.g., Wittering Formation, Kd = 219, 10, 134; for toluene and naphthalene, respectively). Implications of results in landfill design/risk assessment and modelling are discussed
A preliminary investigation of options for remediation of a coastal landfill in the Maldives
No full textThe 3.5 hectare Addu dump site is located in the far south of the Maldives on a narrow strip of land between the atoll islands of Hithadhoo and Maradhoo, located approximately 1.5m above mean sea-level. The site is unlined and there is no engineering to protect the underlying coral sands. The site, opened in 2004, contains approximately 75,000 tonnes of predominantly household wastes, which has been dumped in two windrows without the use of any daily cover. Analysis of samples taken from ponds adjacent to the waste showed elevated EC and chloride concentrations suggesting seawater intrusion was affecting groundwater. Ammonia concentrations were low and nitrate was present in the groundwater samples. The lack of compaction of the waste may allow air ingress so that aerobic biodegradation predominates. Coastal erosion is not currently a problem at the site. Sea water intrusion appears to force groundwater close to the base of dumped waste, and creates some flooding across the site during spring tides. The potential for flooding and rising groundwater levels is likely to increase with sea-level rise (with global projections up to 0.98m by 2100). Options for reclamation of the site could involve separation of metals and inert material, and the remaining material sent to the proposed EfW plant, although further work is needed to understand the suitability of this material for incineration
Fluorescent tracers - a tool for landfill investigation and management
No full textThe paper presents a three-stage framework for assessment of fluorescent dyes as tracers for use within Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) landfills. The value of tracer testing as a means of determining leachate behaviour and guiding leachate management strategies is explained. In the first stage, the fluorescence spectra of 27 leachates were compared with 30 fluorescent dyes, to find those dyes for which there was little interference from leachate. Fluorescein (Uranine), Eosin-Y and Rhodamine WT were selected. In a second stage, the dyes’ resistance to biodegradation by anaerobes was tested. Fluorescein and Rhodamine resisted degradation but Eosin was moderately degraded. In the final stage, all three dyes were sorbed on shredded MSW, with results fitted to Freundlich isotherms. It was concluded that Rhodamine WT was the most suitable quantitative tracer, as modelling its behaviour would require only a single parameter to be fitted. Eosin would require parameters for linear sorption and degradation. Fluorescein was shown to be an excellent qualitative tracer
SWIMS: a dynamic life cycle-based optimisation and decision support tool for solid waste management
No full textSolid waste management (SWM) decision makers are under increasing pressure to implement strategies that are both cost effective and environmentally sound. Consequently, SWM has developed into a highly complex systemic planning problem and analytical tools are needed to assist in the development of more sustainable SWM strategies. Here, we present the Solid Waste Infrastructure Modelling System (SWIMS) software, which is the first non-linear dynamic, LCA-based optimisation tool for SWM that optimises for both economic and environmental performance. The environmental and economic costs of treating generated wastes at available treatment facilities are calculated through a series of life cycle process models, based on non-linear expressions defined for each waste material and each treatment process type. Possible treatment paths for waste streams are identified using a depth first search algorithm and a sequential evolutionary genetic algorithm is used to prioritise the order of these paths, in lieu of user defined optimisation criteria and constraints. SWIMS calculates waste arisings into the future and determines if it is possible to treat generated waste, while considering present and future constraints (e.g. capacity). If additional capacity is required, SWIMS will identify the optimum infrastructure solution to meet this capacity demand. A demonstrative case study of MSW management in GB from 2010 to 2050 is presented. Results suggest that sufficient capacity is available in existing and planned infrastructure to cope with future demand for SWM and meet national regulatory and legislative requirements with relatively little capital investment beyond 2020. SWIMS can be used to provide valuable information for SWM decision makers, particularly when used to analyse the effects of possible future national or regional policies
Solid waste systems assessment
No full textIntroduction: Wastes are defined in the Waste Framework Directive (European Parliament and Council of the European Union, 2008) as ‘any substance or object which the holder discards or intends or is required to discard’. Over the last two to three decades, waste management in the industrialised world has gradually shifted from providing safe disposal of unwanted materials, often by entombing the waste in a sophisticated, engineered landfill, to recovering materials and value from that which is no longer needed through reuse, recycling, composting and energy recovery. In Britain, this shift has resulted in a 71% reduction in the amount of biodegradable municipal waste (BMW) going to landfill since 1995. Recycling and composting have increased from almost nothing in 1995 to nearly 45% of municipal waste treatment today and energy from wastes accounts for about a third of renewable energy generated (Defra, 2015a). This has required significant investment in infrastructure as well as sustained efforts to change the attitude of industry and consumers. Recent publications on resource security (Defra, 2012), resource efficiency (European Commission, 2011) and sustainable materials management (OECD, 2012) show that there is a move away from the linear view of resource management (extraction, manufacture, use, final disposal) towards a more circular view in which waste management becomes primarily a resource recovery operation and final disposal is necessary only for those materials from which further value can no longer be economically or technically extracted. Material and value are recovered from wastes through recycling and composting (42%) and energy recovery (22%) with the remainder being landfilled (34%). (Figures are from Defra for 2012/2013 and are for local authority collected waste (LACW) in England.) Recycling accounts for most of this recovery and the rates for the most commonly collected materials (glass, steel, aluminium, dense plastics (e.g. plastic bottles) and paper, card and cardboard) are shown in Table 8.1. Garden wastes are recovered for composting and food or mixed food and garden wastes for in-vessel composting (IVC) or anaerobic digestion (AD). Other materials (e.g. tetrapaks and plastic film) are recovered more rarely. Energy is generally recovered by incineration from mixed wastes, from mixed wastes processed to produce fuels (solid recovered fuel (SRF) or refuse derived fuel (RDF)) for co-combustion or through the AD of biodegradable wastes (usually food waste or mixed food and green waste).</p
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