Pollutant Removal Efficiency of Different Units Along a Mature Landfill Leachate Treatment Process in a Membrane Biological Reactor-Nanofiltration Combined Facility

Abstract

Properties of landfill leachate are complex. Therefore, leachate should be treated by combined processes with both biological and advanced methods. Due to the shortage of engineering-scale assessment data about the pollutant treatment contribution of individual process units, existing optimization methods still lack theoretical support. Here, a membrane biological reactor (MBR)+nanofiltration (NF) system with a capacity of 800 m3·d-1 was examined. Conventional physiochemical parameters and fluorescent parameters were examined to analyze the contribution of each process unit to treating mature landfill leachate. Furthermore, the transformation of dissolved organic matter (DOM) was evaluated using excitation emission matrix fluorescence spectroscopy-parallel factor (EEMs-PARAFAC). Results showed that the biological treatment removed soluble nitrogen (dissolved nitrogen, DN) by 74.7%, 54.6% occurred in the first-stage denitrification unit. The external ultrafiltration unit reduced dissolved chemical oxygen demand (COD) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) by 92.2% and 93.3%, respectively. The nanofiltration unit effectively removed heavy metals and salts. Based on the tracking of DOM using fluorescent parameters, the first-stage denitrification unit was found to remove 75.4% of protein-like substances. The ultrafiltration unit mainly retained DOM with high hydrophilicity, while humus with high aromaticity was mainly retained by nanofiltration. The higher the degree of humification, the better the interception effect that was obtained. This indicates that biological treatment using the MBR process can be simplified, and ultrafiltration should prove reliable at preventing clogging during the treatment of mature landfill leachate.