Project Log...

week 1

The project group was formed and we assigned roles to all members to allow for good participation.

week 2

We had our first meeting with our supervisor, Mr. Craig McLean and he suggested that we look at previous projects and areas of interest as regard Waste Management so as to come up with a deliverable. Exhaustive literature review on Waste Management was done to come up with a project topic. The Group Members decided to tackle Waste Management in the following manner;

Alejandro Alcala- Computer Decision Support Tools

Adolphe Ndayiragije- Policy issues with Waste Management

Chigozie Opara- Environmental issues with landfill and incineration

Wirot Rattanawiboonsom- Waste management options

week 3

We met to discuss and analyse results of our findings in order to prepare for our first crit. We had access to webct and that allowed for useful interaction and posting of data among the group members. In our first crit on 11/02/05, we presented our literature review and areas of interest in terms of project topic.

week 4

We deliberated on project topic and decided on Control Measures for Municipal Solid Waste Management. After the topic was chosen, we met with our supervisor and he promised making contact with the Environmental Protection Services, Glasgow City Council. We continued researching for the chosen topic for our next presentation.

week 5

We met to discuss results of our findings and prepare for the next crit. Our next crit was held on 25/02/05 and we were asked to repeat the presentation the following week with a good deliverable.

week 6

Following Prof Clarke’s advice, we decided to change our topic to Landfill Gas Recovery Efficiency. We had a meeting with Mr. Robert O’Neil, Director of Environmental Protection Services, and he referred us to the Polmadie Cleansing Depot so as to afford us the opportunity to see how the landfill works in Glasgow. After our meeting, we made contact with Polmadie Cleansing Depot and arranged a meeting for 17/03/05. We proceeded to prepare for a repeat of our previous presentation, having identified a deliverable. On 4/03/05 we had a repeat of our previous presentation.

week 7

We continued researching for our project and had our fourth presentation on 11/03/05 showing results of our analyses using various formulae associated with the estimation of landfill gas recovery.

week 8

We made arrangement for site visit to landfill sites in Glasgow and continued working for our next presentation.

week 9

We visited Polmadie Cleansing Depot (Refuse Transfer Station) and were shown how waste is separated before sending to landfill. After that we were taken to Cathkin Landfill Station and had a first hand view of a typical landfill site in operation. However, there was little data we could collect since there was no energy recovery. Another site visit was scheduled for the following week for Summerston Landfill Site.

week 10

We worked on generating efficiency reference values using data we gathered from US and EU landfill. We also developed our calculator for estimating efficiency using various standards. Our fifth crit took place on 14/04/05.

week 11

We concluded our analyses and tested the calculator with the data we got for Summerston Landfill site. Our final (sixth) crit was held on 21/04/05. In the crit, we showed the order and mode of our final presentation.

week 12

We had our final presentation on 28/04/05.