Abstract
Landfill leachates result from the degradation of solid residues in sanitary landfills, thus presenting a high variability in terms of composition. Normally, these effluents are characterized by high ammoniacal-nitrogen (N–NH4+) concentrations, high chemical oxygen demands and low phosphorus concentrations. The development of effective treatment strategies becomes difficult, posing a serious problem to the environment. Phycoremediation appears to be a suitable alternative for the treatment of landfill leachates. In this study, the potential of Chlorella vulgaris for biomass production and nutrients (mainly nitrogen and phosphorus) removal from different compositions of a landfill leachate was evaluated. Since microalgae also require phosphorus for their growth, different loads of this nutrient were evaluated, giving the following N:P ratios: 12:1, 23:1 and 35:1. The results have shown that C. vulgaris was able to grow in the different leachate compositions assessed. However, microalgal growth was higher in the cultures presenting the lowest N–NH4+ concentration. In terms of nutrients uptake, an effective removal of N–NH4+ and phosphorus was observed in all the experiments, especially in those supplied with phosphorus. Nevertheless, N–NO3− removal was considered almost negligible. These promising results constitute important findings in the development of a bioremediation technology for the treatment of landfill leachates.
Highlights
At the present time, the disposal of solid waste material in sanitary landfills continues to be an extensively used option, since it still has short-term economic advantages when compared to other waste management alternatives [1]
Concentrations of different nutrients were monitored within the cultivation period to allow the characterization of nutrient uptake kinetics
The results have shown that C. vulgaris was able to grow in different formulations of the landfill leachate
Summary
The disposal of solid waste material in sanitary landfills continues to be an extensively used option, since it still has short-term economic advantages when compared to other waste management alternatives [1]. Its ability to induce lethal and pre-pathological alterations on human cells [3,4], mice [5], marine organisms [6,7] and plants [8] is well known and, as a consequence, its proper treatment is imperative. The composition of this kind of effluent is influenced by various factors such as the amount, composition and moisture of the solid waste, age of the landfill, hydrogeology and climate of the site and seasonal weather variations [9]. Some common aspects that can be identified among leachates of different ages and sites are the high levels of N–NH4+, the high chemical oxygen demands and the low phosphate concentrations [10,11]
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