Effectiveness of a Florida Landfill Biocover for Reduction of CH4 and NMHC Emissions

Methane-oxidizing "biocovers" were constructed at the Leon County Landfill (Florida). The primary goal was to determine if a biocover placed above the existing thin (15 cm) intermediate clay cover would be capable of mitigating CH4 and nonmethane hydrocarbon (NMHC) emissions to the atmosphere in this subtropical environment, A secondary goal was to maximize the use of locally recycled materials for biocover construction. The biocovers consisted of 30 or 60 cm of ground garden waste placed over a 15 cm gas distribution layer (clean crushed recycled glass from discarded fluorescent lights). The deep biocover reduced methane fluxes relative to the controls during temporal monitoring over more than a year; in large part, these reductions were attributable to increased methane oxidation. Both the shallow and the deep biocover exhibited significant percentages of negative fluxes (uptake of atmospheric methane) relative to the nonbiocover controls which had consistently positive fluxes. The overall annual effectiveness/performance of the biocover was limited by seasonally high moisture contents and the thin gas distribution layer. For NMHCs, the deep biocover demonstrated substantial reductions for nonmethane hydrocarbon emissions with high percentages of negative fluxes for several hydrocarbon groups, especially the aromatics, alkanes, and lower chlorinated compounds. Ranges of measured NMHC emissions (10(-9) to 10(-3) g m(-2) d(-1)) were similar to previous studies in the literature. Conservative calculations based on field data for total NMHC emissions from the 60 cm biocover area indicate that current U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulatory methods overestimate emissions by more than 2 orders of magnitude, suggesting that improved field-validated methods are needed.