Patent ID: 7364387

Claim:
A method of aerobically accelerating decomposition of CH 4 to CO 2 and H 2 O in garbage dumps covered by an air-permeable covering, which comprises the steps of: (a) depositing garbage at a garbage dump ground in a heap or pile; (b) suctioning out a quantity of dump gases produced by the garbage in the lower third of the pile or heap greater than the quantity of the CH 4 produced in the heap or pile through a plurality of suction pipes wherein said suction pipes have suction openings with upper and lower suction effective regions through which the dump gases are drawn off, arranged in the ground region of the dump, wherein the suction openings are filter stretches limited in their upper section effective regions by a gas tight shell, and only in their lower regions have one or more gas suction openings, thereby creating a vacuum at the bottom of the dump to provide suction; (c) following step (b), suctioning into the lower third of the heap or pile oxygen in atmospheric air through an exterior surface of the air-permeable covering of the dump or pile so that oxygen forcibly traverses the heap or pile and penetrates downwardly into the heap or pile resulting in an oxygen excess; and (d) directly and uniformly aerating the entire heap or pile with the oxygen excess sucked into the lower third of the heap or pile, to limit CH 4 formation from the garbage while effecting an aerobic decomposition of the CH 4 to CO 2 and H 2 O, thereby transforming an anaerobic decomposition process into a decomposition which is at least mostly an aerobic decomposition.