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Dump Fire


Vik
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Kaiser Chef

 

Your suggesting spending hundreds of thousands of pounds if not into the millions putting pipes threw a waste landfill site just incase it ever starts burning to the degree that it can generate any heat energy.

 

Do you really have any idea how stupid that suggestion is ?

 

I am astounded two people liked that comment !

Enlighten me. Just exactly 'how' stupid is it?

(btw, there are already pipes placed in the landfill that are supposed to remove excess heat to prevent this from happening. But they only remove it to atmosphere and, evidently they don't work).

 

 

I'm pretty interested too now. There must be a hell of a lot of heat there if it's true they've been putting in pipes allready.

Edited by Kaiser chef
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Sandison explained that landfill sites become “incredibly hot”, in a similar way to compost heaps, and that fires were a standard occurrence.

 

Quote taken from the newspaper report.  Made me laugh!

 

A modern, well run landfill is an engineering project, not a compost heap.  Fires might have been standard in a 1970s unengineered tip, but not in a 21st century landfill site!  In a modern site, a fire is a sign of poor management or something going very wrong with the landfill engineering.  You don't just shrug and say its normal!

 

If the waste is properly emplaced and compacted, it has very little air in it.  Tiny amounts of oxygen left after compaction will be quickly consumed by aerobic bacteria in the waste, leaving it anerobic.  Without oxygen, you can't have a fire.  The 'hot' waste should be entirely anerobic, so unable to burst into flame!

 

People have mentioned pipes on the site in the waste.  I don't know this site, but I would guess they are part of a landfill gas and leachate managment system, which a site like this would normally have.  If you have sufficient moisture in a landfill, anerobic bacteria will 'eat' the waste, producing methane gas and liquid waste (leachate) which you need to manage as quantities increase.  Landfills usually have engineered wells in each cell, from where you can pump out the excess leachate.  If enough gas is produced, it can be pumped out through a network of pipes, and flared or used to generate electricity.  Unless a landfill is only taking inert waste (eg rubble, bricks), it will tend to require gas management.

 

One of the main aims of good management and monitoring is to prevent ingress of oxygen.  Setting fire to waste can lead to voids, instability, and damage to the engineering and containment (not to mention the air quality issues).  Oxygen and methane mixing in the leachate wells or other part of the system can have terrible safety implications for people on site.  Confined void space + flammable gas + oxygen = BANG!

Edited by Scraplet
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