Category Archives: ETLF

Elevated-Temp Pumps for Landfills to 300F

Two industrial devices with stainless steel components and electronic parts are displayed against a blue technical background. Each device features vertical and horizontal elements, tubes, and cables. Both are mounted on circular metal bases.

All pneumatic air or electric power above grade

GLEN ELLYN, IL — Blackhawk Technology Company, the industry's pumping-innovation leader for the past 25 years, introduces a new line of technologically advanced pumps and products built to manage fluids from 150°F to 300°F in Elevated Temperature Landfills (ETLFs) and other extreme environments.

The V-2 Elevated-Temp Pneumatic Piston Pump™ and Anchor Elevated-Temp Electric Piston Pump™ handle virtually anything flowable, regardless of chemical composition and viscosities, including boiling liquids.

Blackhawk Elevated-Temp products are successfully pumping at several of North America’s most troublesome landfill sites. Specialty materials of construction for the Elevated-Temp line include PEEK thermoplastic-polymer seal cartridges and pistons, Viton® fluoropolymer seals and U-cups, brass oiler plates and green-fiber thermoplastic rods.

Side-Slopes Take Over for Crusty Submersibles

A large cylindrical top-head drive pump lies on its side in an open grassy area. Several pipes extend from the pump, which seems to be disconnected from its original setup. A wooden stake and additional piping are visible nearby. The sky is partly cloudy.

After Hot, Aging Landfill Adds Gas System, Blackhawk Side-Slopes Take Over for Crusty Submersibles

A large, older landfill in a Southern state was baffled by significant changes in its operating characteristics after installing a landfill gas system.

The conscientiously well-run site, opened more than 20 years ago, always has been challenging — extremely harsh, hot and highly volatile. The regional gas manager called it more than a typical landfill, with high variability and breadth in the stream of accepted waste — 40-50 percent trash, 10 percent construction debris, plus significant amounts of industrial waste, bio solids, sludges, solidified liquids, offset products, ash and heavy metals. Industrial waste and fill are used as cover. There is little oxygen and no leachate fingerprint, the manager says.

After Hot, Aging Landfill Adds Gas System, Blackhawk Side-Slopes Take Over for Crusty Submersibles

A Strategy to Tame ETLF Sites

An outdoor setup featuring various pipes, valves, and gauges connected to a gas extraction wellhead with a top-head drive pump. The equipment is installed on a grassy hill with a highway and industrial buildings visible in the background. Colorful hoses are attached to the apparatus.

The ETLF Issue

For the past several years, a growing number of landfill managers have confronted temperatures ranging from 150°F to 250°F or more (65°C to 121°C) from deep inside larger, wetter, maturing sites — not from subsurface fires but from biological or chemical exothermic reactions within zones of the landfill itself.

High concentrations of varied, recombinant leachate compositions in these Elevated Temperature Landfills (ETLFs) can lead to higher costs for treatment or even the refusal of local wastewater treatment plants to accept the leachate, according to a three-part series by Waste 360 in conjunction with ELEF.

Elevated temperatures also may result in slope instability due to reduced waste strength or increased liquid- or gas-pore pressures; surprise sinkholes, and rapid settlement – all safety and infrastructure issues.

In addition, odor and the possibility of offsite gas migration and leachate release have resulted in public demands for tighter operations and oversight and, occasionally, litigation. Research into the causes and spread of ETLFs is ongoing.

For the past several years, a growing number of landfill managers have confronted temperatures ranging from 150°F to 250°F or more (65°C to 121°C) from deep inside larger, wetter, maturing sites — not from subsurface fires but from biological or chemical exothermic reactions within zones of the landfill itself.