Electrocoagulation Treatment of Sanitary Landfill Leachate in Malaysia

Abstract

The tropical climate condition and high moisture of solid waste characteristic in Malaysia led to the increase of leachate generation from landfill. Current leachate treatment showed less efficient to treat leachate due to various refractory pollutants in the leachate. This study employed electrocoagulation (EC) to investigate the effects of electrode material, current density and initial pH condition in reducing total suspended solid (TSS), chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD5), ammonia-nitrogen and colour from the leachate. The result showed that aluminium electrode was able to remove all the parameters more effectively as compared to iron electrode. The optimum current density and pH condition were found to be 100 mA/cm2 and at pH 7, respectively. The COD in the leachate was predominantly exist as particulate matter and it was removed in the form of suspended solids. Although all the pollutant parameters still exceeded the standard discharge limit after the treatment, the electrocoagulation is proposed to act as pretreatment prior to biological treatment in sanitary landfill. The electrocoagulation also can treat leachate from open dumping landfill sites in order to reduce the leachate contamination into the environment.