Toward Sustainable Landfills: Workshop on Models for Sustainable Landfilling

该提议是一个为期两天的研讨会，重点是开发可持续垃圾填埋的数学模型。这次研讨会将利用特拉华州和内布拉斯加州组织者在垃圾填埋过程建模方面的现有专业知识，并将使这两个州的研究人员在垃圾填埋过程数学模型的开发方面取得重大进展。研讨会主题“可持续垃圾填埋的模型”与特拉华州EPSCoR研究基础设施改善(RII)复杂环境系统赠款和新的特拉华大学(UD)临界区研究中心非常契合，旨在开展关于地球维持生命的近地表环境的基础研究。拟议的研讨会将在UD的关键区研究中心内开辟一个新的重点领域。这次研讨会还将推进内布拉斯加州-林肯大学(UNL)在水研究和能源科学方面的两项全大学范围的研究倡议。联合国水中心和对替代能源特别感兴趣的内布拉斯加州能源科学研究中心的成员预计将利用拟议讲习班产生的信息。在美国，围绕垃圾填埋场的问题非常严重。北美产生的固体废物中约有50%是垃圾填埋的。在可预见的未来，预计将继续使用填埋作为固体废物的最终处置选择：焚烧等其他处理技术产生大量必须填埋的残留物，回收工作总是导致必须处置的最终废物产品。随着固体废物行业展望未来，出现了两个关键挑战：通过将垃圾填埋场作为受控生物反应器运营来有效利用垃圾填埋场的能力，以及评估处置在垃圾填埋场中的新化合物和生物制剂的命运。必须解决与有效的垃圾填埋场运作和新出现的污染物的命运有关的挑战，以推动可持续垃圾填埋场管理的新范例。为了应对这些挑战并推进可持续的垃圾填埋，需要合适的模型来描述流体流动、热量传输、废物生物降解以及新出现的化合物和生物制剂在垃圾填埋场中的命运。虽然科学文献中已经介绍了其中一些垃圾填埋过程的数学模型，但现有的模型还很初级。智力优势：限制垃圾填埋模型发展的一个主要因素是必须掌握广泛的学科才能开发出有效的模型。这次研讨会将汇集来自两个EPSCoR伙伴国的专家、来自非EPSCoR国家的机构和几个外国机构，他们共同代表了涵盖相关流程范围的知识领导。该小组将评估垃圾填埋场建模的现状，指出阻碍模型发展的重要科学差距，并建议一条解决这些差距的前进道路，其中可能包括短期和长期研究问题以及改进和测试拟议模型的现场监测计划。更广泛的影响：更广泛的影响包括1)提高对限制垃圾填埋场模型的问题多样性的理解，2)美国科学家对国外垃圾填埋场建模研究的理解，3)制定推进此类模型的计划，4)在EPSCoR州内组织科学界解决垃圾填埋场建模问题。研讨会将有来自代表性不足群体的研究生参加。除了使研究界受益之外，垃圾填埋场建模的进步预计将导致整个美国垃圾填埋场管理实践的改善。

AbstractThe proposal is for a two-day workshop that will focus on the development of mathematical models for sustainable landfilling. This workshop will build upon existing expertise in landfill process modeling by organizers from Delaware and Nebraska, and will position researchers in both states to make significant advancements in the development of mathematical models for landfill processes. The workshop theme "Models for Sustainable Landfilling" fits in well with Delaware's EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement (RII) Grant on Complex Environmental Systems, and the new University of Delaware (UD) Center for Critical Zone Research, designed to conduct basic research concerning the Earth's life-sustaining, near-surface environment. The proposed workshop will open up a new focus area within UD's Center for Critical Zone Research. This workshop will also advance two University-wide research initiatives in Water Research and Energy Science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). Information generated from of the proposed workshop is expected to be utilized by members of the UNL Water Center and the Nebraska Center for Energy Science Research, which has a special interest in alternative energy sources. The issues around landfills are significant in the US. About 50% of the solid waste generated in North America is landfilled. The use of landfilling as a final disposal option for solid waste is expected to continue for the foreseeable future: other treatment technologies, e.g., incineration, produce appreciable residues that must be landfilled, and recycling efforts always result in final waste products that must be disposed. As the solid waste industry looks to the future, two key challenges have emerged: efficiently utilizing landfill capacity through operating landfills as controlled bioreactors, and assessing the fate of new chemical compounds and biological agents that are disposed in landfills. The challenges related to efficient landfill operation and the fate of emerging contaminants must be addressed to advance a new paradigm in landfill management sustainable landfilling. To address these challenges and to advance sustainable landfilling, suitable models are needed to describe fluid flow, heat transport, waste biodegradation, and the fate of emerging chemical compounds and biological agents in landfills. While mathematical models for some of these landfill processes have been introduced in the scientific literature, existing models are rudimentary. Intellectual Merit: A major factor limiting the advancement of landfill models is the broad range of disciplines that must be mastered to develop effective models. This workshop will bring together experts from two EPSCoR partner states, institutions from non-EPSCoR states, and several foreign institutions that together represent the intellectual leadership covering the range of relevant processes. This group will assess the current state of the art in landfill modeling, note important scientific gaps hindering model advancement, and recommend a path forward to address these gaps, which will likely include short and long term research questions as well as field monitoring programs to refine and test proposed models. Broader Impacts: Broader impacts include 1) improved understanding of the diversity of questions limiting landfill models, 2) improved understanding by US scientists of landfill modeling research abroad, 3) development of a plan to advance such models, 4) and organization of the scientific community within EPSCoR states to address landfill modeling questions. The workshop will involve graduate students from underrepresented groups. In addition to benefiting the research community, the advancement of landfill modeling is expected to result in improvements in landfill management practices throughout the US.