Browsing by Author "Graham, Adele"
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Item Open Access Biodegradability determination of municipal waste: an evaluation of methods(The Waste Conference Limited, 2004-09) Godley, Andrew R.; Lewin, Kathy; Graham, Adele; Barker, H.; Smith, RichardThe Environment Agency is required to monitor the diversion of biodegradable municipal waste (BMW) from landfill. Reliable methods are needed to measure the biodegradability of municipal waste, both as mixed municipal waste and as individually separated fractions. An evaluation of several methods was carried out using a variety of organic materials typically found in municipal solid waste. The assessment considered biological and non-biological methods to determine which provides the bestfit surrogate measurement for relative waste biodegradability. The biological methods tested were: the aerobic specific oxygen uptake rate, dynamic respiration index tests, and the anaerobic biochemical methane potential test. The non-biological methods evaluated were: dry matter, loss on ignition, total organic carbon, total nitrogen, water extractable dissolved organic carbon, biological oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, lignin and cellulose content and cellulase hydrolysis. This paper also reviews how such tests can be used to measure the relative biodegradation of municipal waste and benchmark the relative diversion from landfill achieved by the pre-treatment of municipal waste in a mechanical biological treatment (MBT) process.Item Open Access Charaterisation of treated wastes to support an evidence base for sustainable waste management.(The Waste Conference Limited, 2006-09) Lewin, Kathy; Godley, Andrew R.; Turrell, J.; Smith, Richard; Frederickson, Jim; Graham, Adele; Gronow, Jan R.; Blakey, N.Defra must consider policies and strategies to manage environmental challenges such as climate change and sustainability. At a basic level the strategies need good quality data on waste characteristics. The dataset for UK wastes, in particular the new generation of treated wastes, is not fit for this purpose. This paper outlines the gaps in knowledge needed to underpin policy development and initial findings from a new project funded under Defra’s Waste and Resource Management Research Programme. The project team from WRc, Open University and Cranfield University aims to improve understanding of the characteristics of treated organic and inorganic wastes, methods of testing and knowledge of treatment process performance. Potential opportunities from the research are also described. New data will be collated into the presentation.Item Open Access Environment Agency review of methods for determining organic waste biodegradability and municipal waste diversion.(Aqua Enviro Technology Transfer, 2003-11) Godley, Andrew R.; Lewin, Kathy; Graham, Adele; Smith, RichardThe Environment Agency is required to regulate the landfilling of biodegradable organic wastes and their diversion from landfilling. Simple, cost effective, reliable and widely applicable methods for the measurement of organic waste and its biodegradability are needed for this activity. A review of such methods was carried out in order to select promising methods for an experimental screening exercise. The review considered both biological and non-biological methods including simple methods that may provide a surrogate measurement of waste biodegradability instead of the time-consuming biological methods. The biological methods selected for further evaluation were the aerobic specific oxygen uptake rate (SOUR) and dynamic respiration index (DRI) tests, and the anaerobic biochemical methane potential (BMP) test. The non-biological methods selected for further evaluation were dry matter (DM), loss on ignition (LOI), total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN), water extractable dissolved organic carbon (DOC), BOD and COD, the lignin and cellulose content and the cellulase hydrolysis method. These tests are being evaluated on a wide variety of typical organic materials that might be found in municipal solid waste (MSW) such as newspaper corrugated paper, compost, kitchen waste (vegetable and animal), garden wastes (grass and twigs), nappies, cotton and wool textiles.