Extreme Compaction Effects on Gas Transport Parameters and Estimated Climate Gas Exchange for a Landfill Final Cover Soil

Landfill sites have been implicated in greenhouse warming scenarios as a significant source of atmospheric methane. In this study, the effects of extreme compaction on the two main soil-gas transport parameters, the gas diffusion coefficient (Dp) and the intrinsic air permeability (ka), and the cumulative methane oxidation rate in a landfill cover soil were investigated. Extremely compacted landfill cover soil exhibited negligible inactive soil-air contents for both Dp and ka. In addition, greater Dp and ka were observed as compared with normal compacted soils at the same soil-air content (ε), likely because of reduced water-blockage effects under extreme compaction. These phenomena are not included in existing predictive models for Dp(ε) and ka(ε). On the basis of the measured data, new predictive models for Dp(ε) and ka(ε) were developed with model parameters (representing air-filled pore connectivity and water-blockage effects) expressed as functions of dry density (ρb). The developed Dp(ε) and ka(ε) models together with soil-water retention data for soils at normal and extreme compaction (ρb=1.44 and 1.85 g cm-3) implied that extremely compacted soils will exhibit lower Dp and ka at natural field-water content (-100 cmH2O of soil-water matric potential) because of much lower soil-air content. Numerical simulations of methane gas transport, including a first-order methane oxidation rate, were performed for differently compacted soils by using the new predictive Dp(ε) model. Model results showed that compaction-induced difference in soil-air content at a given soil-water matric potential condition is likely the most important parameter governing methane oxidation rates in extremely compacted landfill cover soil.