In situ aeration of old landfills: description of the technology and case studies

The in situ aeration of Municipal Solid Waste landfills enhances the stabilization processes of the biodegradable organic substance, resulting in an improvement of the quality of emissions. The full scale application of the in situ aeration requires, besides the usual preliminary investigations for site characterization in terms of waste and emission quality, the evaluation of relevant parameters for the design of the in situ aeration plant, such as the radius of influence of air injection and gas extraction wells and the pressure field in the landfill body during the aeration process. This paper will provide some examples of preliminary tests carried out for the evaluation of the abovementioned parameters at Calancoi landfill in Sassari, Sardinia, Italy. Some results will be presented and discussed for a full scale application of the Airflow® technology on a landfill in northern Italy.