This was a student project by Alex Arseneau for Katherine Jenkin's course LARCH 4970 in Spring 2019.
This project is a proposed expansion of the existing landfill facility at Mount Rumpke near Cincinnati, Ohio. The drumlin-shaped bioreactor mounds emerge from the old landform and together form an undulating surface rich with ecological value. Each drumlin contains a hybrid aerobic-anaerobic bioreactor system to increase degradation of waste products and accelerate the process of methanogenesis. This is facilitated by a bioreactor core pipe structure which injects oxygen and liquids into the waste, and extracts the methane created to use for power generation in a structure on the surface which constantly spews exhaust like an active volcano.
On the surface, each Drumlin is hydroseeded and planted with three ecologies. A dry-mesic prairie on the southern tapered side of the drumlin, a Appalachian conifer woodland on the northern blunt side, and a maple-elm swamp forest in the gorge areas between. After many years, when the site becomes safe to occupy and the ecologies have grown and hybridized, the site would be used for species reintroduction, habitat, and leave-no-trace outdoor recreational activities, in a conceptual contrast to the degraded waste product below.
