Impact of biological clogging on the barrier performance of landfill liners

• Published in: Journal of environmental management 2018-09, Vol.222, p.44-53
• Main Authors: Tang, Qiang, Gu, Fan, Zhang, Yu, Zhang, Yuqing, Mo, Jialin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Barrier performance; Biological clogging; Hydraulic conductivity; Landfill liner
• ISSN: 0301-4797; 1095-8630
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.05.039

The durability of landfill mainly relies on the anti-seepage characteristic of liner system. The accumulation of microbial biomass is effective in reducing the hydraulic conductivity of soils. This study aimed at evaluating the impact of the microorganism on the barrier performance of landfill liners. According to the results, Escherichia coli. produced huge amounts of extracellular polymeric substances and coalesced to form a confluent plugging biofilm. This microorganism eventually resulted in the decrease of soil permeability by 81%–95%. Meanwhile, the increase of surface roughness inside the internal pores improved the adhesion between microorganism colonization and particle surface. Subsequently, an extensive parametric sensitivity analysis was undertaken for evaluating the contaminant transport in landfill liners. Decreasing the hydraulic conductivity from 1 × 10−8 m/s to 1 × 10−10 m/s resulted in the increase of the breakthrough time by 345.2%. This indicates that a low hydraulic conductivity was essential for the liner systems to achieve desirable barrier performance. •The biofilms in the soil pores significantly decrease the effective porosity.•The adhesion of microorganisms is dependent on the surface properties of the carriers.•The transport of contaminant through microbial modified liners is evaluated via numerical analysis.