Impact of Landfill Gas Exposure on Vegetation in Engineered Landfill Biocover Systems Implemented to Minimize Fugitive Methane Emissions from Landfills

Dinu S. Attalage, J. Patrick A. Hettiaratchi (), Angus Chu, Dinesh Pokhrel and Poornima A. Jayasinghe
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Dinu S. Attalage: Department of Geoscience, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive, NW, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada
J. Patrick A. Hettiaratchi: Department of Civil Engineering, Center for Environmental Engineering Research and Education (CEERE), University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive, NW, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada
Angus Chu: Department of Civil Engineering, Center for Environmental Engineering Research and Education (CEERE), University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive, NW, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada
Dinesh Pokhrel: Department of Civil Engineering, Center for Environmental Engineering Research and Education (CEERE), University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive, NW, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada
Poornima A. Jayasinghe: Department of Civil Engineering, Center for Environmental Engineering Research and Education (CEERE), University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive, NW, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 5, 1-16

Abstract: Engineered landfill biocovers (LBCs) minimize the escape of methane into the atmosphere through biological oxidation. Vegetation plays a crucial role in LBCs and can suffer from hypoxia caused by the displacement of root-zone oxygen due to landfill gas and competition for oxygen with methanotrophic bacteria. To investigate the impact of methane gas on vegetation growth, we conducted an outdoor experiment using eight vegetated flow-through columns filled with a 45 cm mixture of 70% topsoil and 30% compost, planted with three types of vegetation: native grass blend, Japanese millet, and alfalfa. The experiment included three control columns and five columns exposed to methane, as loading rates gradually increased from 75 to 845 gCH 4 /m 2 /d over a period of 65 days. At the highest flux, we observed a reduction of 51%, 31%, and 19% in plant height, and 35%, 25%, and 17% in root length in native grass, Japanese millet, and alfalfa, respectively. The column gas profiles indicated that oxygen concentrations were below the levels required for healthy plant growth, which explains the stunted growth observed in the plants used in this experiment. Overall, the experimental results demonstrate that methane gas has a significant impact on the growth of vegetation used in LBCs.

Keywords: methane oxidation; landfill gas; plant stress; fugitive methane emissions; landfill biocover systems (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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