A landfill is a site designated for the disposal of all sorts of solid wastes.

Landfills are the most

common method of organized waste disposal, where waste is either buried or left to pile in
heaps. While some landfills are well managed and designed as part of integrated waste
management, most landfills are left unattended leading to uncontrolled buildup of solid waste
materials. Improperly managed landfills lead to serious degradation of the environment by
releasing various contaminants in gaseous, liquid, and particulate forms. The three major
environmental challenges associated with the sustainable management of landfills are the
reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, mitigation of odor and prevention of groundwater
contamination.

During the anaerobic degradation of solid waste, organic matter is broken down by
microorganisms into simple compounds, leading to the formation of landfill gas. CO2 and CH4
are the dominant components in landfill gas. Methane is the second largest contributor to global
warming after Carbon dioxide (USEPA, 2001). Global warming potential of Methane is 28 times
higher than that of CO2 over a period of 100 years (IPCC 2103).Landfill dumpsites are one of the
major anthropogenic sources of Methane (USEPA, 2002).

Although non-methane organic compounds (NMOCs) comprise less than 1% (V/V) of landfill gas,
they may create a disproportionate environmental burden and potential risk to human health
(Allen et al., 1997). NMHCs include benzene, trichloromethane, trichloroethane (TCE), and
dichloromethane (DCM), and sulfurous compounds. Trace gas emissions are often associated
with localized odor issues, particularly sulfurous compounds. emissions of carcinogens, such as
benzene and vinyl chloride, pose a potential threat to workers and local inhabitants (El-Fadel et
al., 1997 ; Durmusoglu et al., 2010). Furthermore, chloro- and fluoro-hydrocarbons emitted from
landfills seriously corrode combustion engines that utilize landfill gas (Dernbach, 1985), deplete
the ozone layer, and cause climate change (Molina and Rowland, 1974 ; Wallington et al., 1994).

Land-fill leachate is generated when excessive water percolates from the surface through to the
bottom of the landfill. Landfill leachate is contaminated liquid that is generated as a result of
interaction with solid waste and may contain a range of contaminants, including ammonia, total
dissolved salts, metals like Cr (VI), Cu, Cd, Pb and xenobiotics like PCB, BTEXs etc. Groundwater
contamination may result from leakage of even small amounts of contaminant laden leachate
into fresh water waterways, ultimately ending up in water for drinking and everyday use.

Bioremediation is a technology that can be used to reduce, eliminate, or contain hazardous

waste. Microorganisms, and to a lesser extent plants, can transform and degrade many types of
contaminants. These transformation and degradation processes vary, depending on the physical-
chemical environment, microbial communities, and nature of the contaminant. Many organic
contaminants such as hydrocarbon fuels can be degraded to relatively harmless products such as
CO2 (the end result of the degradation process).Thus, Bioremediation is a pollution treatment
technology that uses microbial metabolic processes to reduce, eliminate, contain, or transform
various contaminants present in soils, sediments, water, or air to benign products.

Landfill methane may be oxidized by methanotrophic microorganisms in soils or waste materials

utilizing oxygen that diffuses from the atmosphere. Thus an inexpensive way to reduce
greenhouse-active methane emissions from existing landfills is to exploit the natural process of
microbial methane oxidation through improved landfill cover design. Landfill top covers, which
optimise environmental conditions for methanotrophic bacteria and enhance biotic methane
consumption, are often called biocovers and function as vast bio-filters spread over an entire
landfill area. They are often waste materials, such as diverse composts, mechanically-biologically
treated waste, dewatered sewage sludge or yard waste.

Similarly Groundwater contamination due to landfill leachate may be prevented by installation

of permeable bioreactive zones or biobarriers around existing landfills. The biobarrier concept
typically involves the construction of a barrier containing substrates (e.g., nutrients, electron
acceptors) or inoculated microbial consortia, which can enhance the in situ bioremediation of
organic contaminants. In the field application, the biobarrier technology can be integrated with
other established technologies and has several advantages over other physicalchemical
remedial technologies including environmental friendly, lower maintenance costs, treatment in
situ, absence of above ground facilities, and no groundwater reinjection.
Objectives:

Isolation of methanothrophs from various sources including landfill site, biosludge and
mangroves.

Characterization of isolated methanotrophs with respect to their methane oxidizing capabilities.

Application of isolated methantrophs in designing biocover for landfill methane mitigation.

Evaluating the performance of the designed biocover.

Literature review.
Table 1: Literature review onBio-oxidation of CH4 in different reactors with different inoculum.
Reactor Inoculum Maximum Reference
Methane
Oxidation rate
(g m3 h1)
Biotrickling filter Methanotrophic 22 Rocha Ros et al. 2009
(multiphase) consortium isolated from 51
WWTP
Biofilter Leachate from 5.0 Nikiema and Heitz, 2010
methanotrophic biofilter 10.5
17.3
Biofilter Not specified 14.5 Girard et al. 2011
Biocover Not specified 5 Perdikea et al. 2008
Biofilter Indigenous microorganisms 27.5 Haubrichs and Widmann,
from the packing material 2006
Biotrickling filter Lixiviate from biofilter 10 Avalos Ramrez et al. 2012
treating CH4 8
21
Biotrickling filter with Methanotrophic 30 Estrada et al. 2014
recirculation of gas consortium isolated from
WWTP
Biotrickling filter Methanotrophs type I 6.2 Cceres et al. 2016
(Methylomicrobium
album) and type II
(Methylocystis sp.)
Parameter (units) [CH4] (g max KS (g YX/S (g g1)
m3) (d1) m3)
Delhomnie et al. 2008 <10.4 0.43 5.37 0.360.8
Delhomnie et al. 2008 10.4 1.09 7.59 0.360.8
19.3
Menard et al. 2014 1.35.9 0.79 6.13
Santos-Rodrigues et al. 0.03 0.77 0.68
2009
Boiesen et al. 1993 0.43 0.050.19 0.270.89
1.30
Ordaz et al. 2014 120 2.23 0.11 0.69
Cceres et al. 2016 35226 1.10 0.290.43 0.140.40
1.16