Mathematical and experimental study of hydrogen sulfide concentrations in the Kahrizak landfill, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

The emission of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) from the Kahrizak landfill was studied. Firstly, the field measurements were conducted in the summer and winter seasons; and the samples were analyzed using Jacob method. We predicted the H2S concentrations in the downwind using AERMOD and ISCST3. According to the AERMOD, the maximum concentration of H2S in the summer and winter were 117 μg/m3 and 205 μg/m3, respectively. The downwind concentrations reached zero at the distance of 35 km from the leachate treatment plant. The Geometric mean bias, Geometric variance, Fractional bias, Fraction of predictions within a factor of two of the observations and Normalized mean square error for the AERMOD were 0.58, 1.35,-0.12, 1.91 and 0.042, respectively in the summer and 1.39, 1.35,-0.05, 1.46 and 0.027 in the winter; and for the ISCST3, were 0.85, 1.03, 0.02, 1.45 and 0.04 in the summer and 1.18, 1.03, 0.15, 1.16 and 0.04 in the winter. The results of the AERMOD were compared with the ISCST3 and indicated that the AERMOD performance was more suitable than the ISCST3.