Revisiting the passive biocover system at Klintholm landfill, six years after construction

A biocover system was established at Klintholm landfill in Denmark in 2009 to mitigate methane emissions, and the system exhibited high mitigation efficiency during the first year after implementation. The biocover system was revisited in 2016/2017, and a series of field and laboratory tests were carried out to evaluate functionality about six years after establishment. Three field campaigns were executed in three different barometric pressure conditions, namely increasing, stable and decreasing. Local surface flux measurements and gas concentration profiles in the methane oxidation layer showed that barometric pressure changes had a significant effect on gas emission and methane oxidation. Elevated concentrations of oxygen were observed in the gas distribution layer, and field data showed that significant methane oxidation took place in this location. This finding was verified in laboratory-based methane oxidation incubation tests. Temperatures higher than ambient temperature were observed throughout the methane oxidation layer, with average temperatures ranging between 13 and 27 degrees C, even in the coldest month of the year. Field measurements showed that total methane emissions from the whole landfill cell were at the same level or lower than measurements performed in 2009/2010 after implementation of the biocover system, and laboratory tests showed methane oxidation potential approximately equal to former tests. In spite of an inhomogeneous distribution of landfill gas load to the methane oxidation layer, the performance of the biocover system had not declined over the 6-7 years since its establishment, even though no maintenance had been carried out in the intervening years.