Date of Award

12-2009

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.S.

Degree Program

Environmental Engineering

Department

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Major Professor

Kura, Bhaskar

Second Advisor

La Motta, Enrique J.

Third Advisor

Williams, Patricia M.

Abstract

In USA, the Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) landfills accumulate about 130 million tons of solid waste every year. A significant amount of biodegradable solid waste is converted to landfill gas due to anaerobic stabilization by bacteria. These biochemical reactions produce volatile organic compounds (VOCs) like methane and others. Due to heterogeneity in refuse composition, unpredictable distribution of favorable environmental conditions for bacterial actions and highly uncertain pathway of gases, estimation of landfill gas emission for a particular landfill is complex. However, it is important to quantify landfill gases for health risk assessment and energy recovery purposes. This research is based on the monitoring and modeling methodology proposed by researchers at University of Central Florida is reported in this thesis. River Birch Sub-title D landfill, Westwego, LA was selected as the study area. The total emission calculated using the mathematical model ran on MATLAB is comparable with the result obtained from EPA LandGEM model, using historical waste deposition records

Rights

The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.

Share

COinS