Influence of Physical Parameters on Methane Oxidation in Landfill Cover Soils Term Paper in Biogeochemistry and Pollution Dynamics, Master Studies in Environmental Science, ETH Zürich

Methane emissions from landfills make an important contribution to the anthropogenic induced global warming, and it has been estimated that landfills are responsible for a major part of anthropogenic methane emission. Landfill cover soils are identified to have a huge potential for methane oxidation trough methanotrophs. There are several research efforts to investigate the optimum composition of cover soil to maximise the methane oxidation. In this paper we compare different kinds of cover soils from landfills regarding physical parameters such as the soil texture, moisture content and temperature and their influence on CH4 oxidation. There are several methods to measure either the methane flux from the landfill surface or the methane oxidizing rate, and the important methods which were noticed in the considered papers are presented. The wide range of values for methane emission from landfills and for CH4 oxidation rates in landfill cover soils is due in part to the variability in cover soil material, moisture content and temperature. Moisture content and temperature seems to be more important re-garding methane oxidation in cover soil than soil texture. The highest optimal moisture content was found for a cover soil made up of composted yard waste. Optimum temperatures are found for differ-ent soils to be in range of 20 to 37°C. The application of methane oxidising cover soils in addition t