Ohio research helps unravel landfill heating mysteries

By Farah Siddiqi

Elevated temperature landfills are unusual sites where waste temperatures rise far above normal levels.

Ohio was home to some of the earliest cases in the 2000s, making it a key place to understand what causes them and how they’re managed.

Craig Benson, professor emeritus of engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and dean of engineering emeritus at the University of Virginia, said Ohio’s early elevated temperature landfills were initially a puzzle.

"It was a mystery," Benson acknowledged. "But we figured this out over time by studying them and understanding what the problems were. And it actually turns out to be fairly straightforward but also fairly complex at the same time."

Research sponsored by the Environmental Research and Education Foundation and others has shown only about 15 elevated temperature landfills have been documented nationwide, a tiny fraction of U.S. landfills. Research funded by the foundation has helped operators identify, define and manage such landfills safely.

Once the science was clearer, researchers developed methods to cool the sites. Benson emphasized most landfills function safely, but while rare, elevated temperature landfills require extra measures.

"We figured out we needed to pull the heat out more," Benson explained. "We’ve developed a way to pull the water out, which allows us to manage the gas and leachate better, which also pulls the heat out at the same time."

While Ohio has not seen substantial new elevated temperature landfills in recent years, the research sparked here continues to influence landfill operations nationwide. Experts said proactive testing of industrial waste and ongoing innovation can help extend infrastructure life and reduce risks for communities.