Simultaneous mitigation of methane and odors in a biowindow using a pipe network

• Published in: Waste management (Elmsford) Vol. 100; pp. 45 - 56
• Main Authors: Jung, Hyekyeng, Oh, Kyung-Cheol, Ryu, Hee-Wook, Jeon, Jun-Min, Cho, Kyung-Suk
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.12.2019
• Subjects: Bacterial community; Biowindow; Landfill; Methane; Mitigation; Odor; Methane; Mitigation; Landfill; Odor; Bacterial community; Biowindow
• ISSN: 0956-053X; 1879-2456
• DOI: 10.1016/j.wasman.2019.09.004

[Display omitted] •A biowindow is proposed as a way to reduce the required installation area.•The installation area can be reduced by a factor of up to 50.•The methane and odor removal was 55.8–99.9% and 93.2–99.8%, respectively.•High bacterial diversity contributed to robust biocover performance.•The biowindow is a promising method for the treatment of landfill gas. In this study, a biowindow with a piped gas collection network is proposed as an area-efficient landfill gas treatment system. A 9-m2 biowindow was constructed for treating landfill gas collected from an area of 450 m2 in a sanitary landfill, and its performance was evaluated for 224 days. The methane removal efficiency was 59–100% at 146.3–675.1 g-CH4 m−2 d−1. Odorous compounds were also removed by the biowindow, with a complex odor intensity removal rate of 93–100%. In particular, the removal efficiency for hydrogen sulfide and methanethiol, major contributors to the complex odor intensity, was 97% and 91%, respectively. Metagenomic analysis showed that the dominant bacterial genera shifted from Acinetobacter and Pseudomonas to Methylobacter and Methylocaldum due to the high concentration of methane. A high bacterial diversity was maintained, which may have contributed to the robust performance of the biowindow against environmental fluctuations. At 1/50th of the size of conventional biocovers, the proposed biowindow can greatly reduce the required installation area and represents a competitive method for the simultaneous treatment of methane and odor in landfills.