Toward Sustainable Landfills: Workshop on Models for Sustainable Landfilling

University Of Delaware, Newark DE

Investigators

Abstract

Abstract The proposal is for a two-day workshop that will focus on the development of mathematical models for sustainable landfilling. This workshop will build upon existing expertise in landfill process modeling by organizers from Delaware and Nebraska, and will position researchers in both states to make significant advancements in the development of mathematical models for landfill processes. The workshop theme "Models for Sustainable Landfilling" fits in well with Delaware's EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement (RII) Grant on Complex Environmental Systems, and the new University of Delaware (UD) Center for Critical Zone Research, designed to conduct basic research concerning the Earth's life-sustaining, near-surface environment. The proposed workshop will open up a new focus area within UD's Center for Critical Zone Research. This workshop will also advance two University-wide research initiatives in Water Research and Energy Science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). Information generated from of the proposed workshop is expected to be utilized by members of the UNL Water Center and the Nebraska Center for Energy Science Research, which has a special interest in alternative energy sources. The issues around landfills are significant in the US. About 50% of the solid waste generated in North America is landfilled. The use of landfilling as a final disposal option for solid waste is expected to continue for the foreseeable future: other treatment technologies, e.g., incineration, produce appreciable residues that must be landfilled, and recycling efforts always result in final waste products that must be disposed. As the solid waste industry looks to the future, two key challenges have emerged: efficiently utilizing landfill capacity through operating landfills as controlled bioreactors, and assessing the fate of new chemical compounds and biological agents that are disposed in landfills. The challenges related to efficient landfill operation and the fate of emerging contaminants must be addressed to advance a new paradigm in landfill management sustainable landfilling. To address these challenges and to advance sustainable landfilling, suitable models are needed to describe fluid flow, heat transport, waste biodegradation, and the fate of emerging chemical compounds and biological agents in landfills. While mathematical models for some of these landfill processes have been introduced in the scientific literature, existing models are rudimentary. Intellectual Merit: A major factor limiting the advancement of landfill models is the broad range of disciplines that must be mastered to develop effective models. This workshop will bring together experts from two EPSCoR partner states, institutions from non-EPSCoR states, and several foreign institutions that together represent the intellectual leadership covering the range of relevant processes. This group will assess the current state of the art in landfill modeling, note important scientific gaps hindering model advancement, and recommend a path forward to address these gaps, which will likely include short and long term research questions as well as field monitoring programs to refine and test proposed models. Broader Impacts: Broader impacts include 1) improved understanding of the diversity of questions limiting landfill models, 2) improved understanding by US scientists of landfill modeling research abroad, 3) development of a plan to advance such models, 4) and organization of the scientific community within EPSCoR states to address landfill modeling questions. The workshop will involve graduate students from underrepresented groups. In addition to benefiting the research community, the advancement of landfill modeling is expected to result in improvements in landfill management practices throughout the US.