Landfill CH4 Oxidation, N2O, and CO2 Emissions from Wastewater-Incubated Mineralised Refuse: The Effect of Heavy Metal Addition and Environmental Factor Variations

The first investigations on anthropogenic methane (CH 4 ) oxidation and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emissions from mineralised refuse after wastewater treatment are reported. The maximum methane oxidation rate (MOR) in the incubated material was 15.48 μmol/g dry weight/h, which was substantially higher than those for the original mineralised refuse or soil. A correlation analysis ( P > 0.05) showed that the mean particle size ( D 50 ) value, organic matter content, NH 4 + –N nitrification, and NO 3 − –N generation rates ( P 0.05). The stimulation of N 2 O emissions from the mineralised refuse could be neglected under the much higher MOR of a municipal solid waste landfill. Because of its high tolerance for environmental factor variations (i.e., soil temperature and water content) and heavy metal addition, mineralised refuse could be used to filter a wide variety of wastewaters to increase the MOR.