Journal of Crystallization Process and Technology, 2018, 8, 18-32 http://www.scirp.org/journal/jcpt ISSN Online: 2161-7686 ISSN Print: 2161-7678 DOI: 10.4236/jcpt.2018.81002 Jan. 19, 2018 18 Journal of Crystallization Process and Technology Migration of Biodegradable Organic Matter in Underlying Soils of Household Waste Dumpsites: A Case Study in Abomey-Calavi, Benin Metogbe B. Djihouessi 1 , Sofiath Onifade 1 , Martin P. Aina 1,2* , Hervé E. Labité 1 , François de Paule Codo 1,2 1 Laboratoire des Sciences et Techniques de l’Eau (LSTE), Institut National de l’Eau, Université d’Abomey-Calavi (UAC), Cotonou, Bénin 2 Institut National de l’Eau (INE), Université d’Abomey-Calavi (UAC), Cotonou, Bénin Abstract This paper presented the first part of the studies about the development of a tool for groundwater contamination prediction, conducted by the Laboratory of Sciences and Technology of Water (UAC/Benin). The investigation made consisted in estimating the combined effect of retardation factor and biode- gradation on migration processes of leachate, in the underlying soils of household waste dumpsites, without active safety barrier. Leachate infiltration tests for different initial conditions were made on soil columns and the breakthrough curves were traced for electrical conductivity, the 5 day bio- chemical oxygen demand (BOD 5 ) and total kjeldahl nitrogen TKN. A mathe- matical migration model was developed and solved numerically by finite dif- ference method and implemented with Matlab R2013a. Thus, the calibration of the model was made with electric conductivity data by determining the dispersion coefficient of the studied soils (D = 0.96 cm 2 /min). Simulations for model verification showed that the established model can perfectly predict the migration of biodegradable organic pollution (BOD 5 ) but did not give conclu- sive results for the monitoring of nitrogenous organic matter (TKN). The in- fluence of the retardation factor on the migration of biodegradable organic pollutants in soils was linear, while the biodegradation rate of the organic ma- terial on migration showed an exponential pattern. Keywords Waste Dumpsites, Pollutants, Biodegradability, Soil Dispersion, Column Test, How to cite this paper: Djihouessi, M.B., Onifade, S., Aina, M.P., Labité, H.E. and de Paule Codo, F. (2018) Migration of Biode- gradable Organic Matter in Underlying Soils of Household Waste Dumpsites: A Case Study in Abomey-Calavi, Benin. Jour- nal of Crystallization Process and Tech- nology, 8, 18-32. https://doi.org/10.4236/jcpt.2018.81002 Received: November 28, 2017 Accepted: January 14, 2018 Published: January 19, 2018 Copyright © 2018 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access