Heat Generation and Accumulation in Municipal Solid Waste Landfills

There have been reports of North American landfills that are experiencing temperatures in excess of 80-100 C. However, the processes causing elevated temperatures are not well understood. The objectives of this study were to develop a model to describe the generation, consumption and release of heat from landfills, to predict landfill temperatures, and to understand the relative importance of factors that contribute to heat generation and accumulation. Modeled heat sources include energy from aerobic and anaerobic biodegradation, anaerobic metal corrosion, ash hydration and carbonation, and acid base neutralization. Heat removal processes include landfill gas convection, infiltration, leachate collection, and evaporation. The landfill was treated as a perfectly mixed batch reactor. Model predictions indicate that both anaerobic metal corrosion and ash hydration/carbonation contribute to landfill temperatures above those estimated from biological reactions alone. Exothermic pyrolysis of refuse, which is hypothesized to be initiated due to a local accumulation of heat, was modeled empirically to illustrate its potential impact on heat generation.