UF-Sponsored workshop focuses on bioreactor landfills in Florida

May 16, 2006

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Florida Center for Solid and Hazardous Waste Management at the University of Florida will offer a bioreactor landfill workshop May 25-26 in Orlando.

Expected to attend are directors of solid waste operations, owners and operators of landfills, engineers, municipal officials, consulting firms and engineering experts.

The workshop, taught by Debra Reinhart of the University of Central Florida and Timothy Townsend of the University of Florida, will include an overview of the design, management, operation and regulations associated with a bioreactor landfill. Workshop attendees can expect to learn about bioreactor landfills from inception to post-closure through hands-on applications and a tour of the North Central Landfill in Polk County.

Bioreactor landfills infuse garbage with liquid and air, speeding up the decomposition process, which shrinks the bulk and allows more waste to be placed in the landfill. As an added benefit, this process produces enough combustible gas to allow landfills to become energy sources, similar to small power plants, as is being done at the Southwest Landfill in Alachua County.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection contracted the solid and hazardous waste center at UF to build a state-of-the-art bioreactor facility. The UF project is a scaled-up, fully instrumented landfill cell, engineered from the start as a bioreactor facility. It is located at the New River Regional Landfill, a joint program of Baker, Bradford and Union counties.

Polk County Solid Waste is working with UF to turn its North Central Landfill (Class I-sanitary lined cell) into a bioreactor. The county is installing a horizontal leachate recirculation system, a method for optimal control of the recirculation. There is a potential for this process to become fully automated, and Polk County is leading the way in developing that methodology.

“The amount of garbage produced in Florida is continuing to increase, yet siting issues remain a formidable task,” said Mary Jean Yon, director of the waste division of the Department of Environmental Protection. “The bioreactor technology provides a solution to both problems and has the added benefit of producing a viable energy source.”

To register for the workshop, visit www.bioreactor.org or call the Florida Center for Solid and Hazardous Waste Management at (352) 392-6264. The workshop will be held at the Embassy Suites International Drive Convention Center.

Continuing education units will be available.