Estimating the Effect of Temperature, Density and Water Content on Waste Electrical Resistivity

One of the bioreactor concepts is based on waste moisture optimisation to increase biogas production and accelerate biodegradation to reduce post closure operation and possible impact on the environment. Measuring moisture content of landfilled waste is a difficult task due to the complexity of sensor implementation during landfilling of waste and the weak representativeness of punctual data. Among all the techniques available electrical resistivity tomography proves since many years its potential It proved its ability to evaluate leachate recirculation network performance by showing the zones subjected to electrical resistivity variations. Nevertheless, electrical resistivity is influenced by many physical parameters and no single relationship with volumetric water content was yet established for municipal solid waste (MSW).The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of temperature, density and water content on electrical resistivity of waste samples in laboratory.