Coupled heat-activated persulfate – Electrolysis for the abatement of organic matter and total nitrogen from landfill leachate

Abstract

This work analyzes the viability of a coupled heat-activated persulfate (PS) and electro-oxidation treatment toabatetheorganic matter and nitrogen from ahigh polluted landfill leachate (5500 mg L−1 TOC; 5849 mg L−1 TN, pH: 8.4). These characteristics makes PS as a suitable oxidant to deal with the recalcitrant organic matter. Under the optimal conditions (70 °C and 60% of the stoichiometric amount of PS), around 60% of the initial organic load was mineralized. On the contrary, the nitrogen removal was below 20%. A subsequent electrolytic stage using Ti/IrO2–TaO2 anode at 175 mA cm−2 and 0.42 M NaCl during 60 min, led to overall organic matter and nitrogen removal above 85% and 90%, respectively, with energy requirement of 38 kWh per kg of nitrogen removed. In this sense, the combined process achieves a significant reduction in terms of energy consumption, up to one fifth in relation to sole electrolysis. These results confirm the feasibility of this combined process to treat landfill leachate.