Removal of Ammonia Nitrogen from Landfill Leachate by Ultrasound/Ultraviolet Process

Abstract

Landfill leachate treatment is a major problem to be solved in the field of environmental protection, and ammonia nitrogen is one of the major pollutants in landfill leachate, whose processing technology needs further improvement. In this paper, ultrasound/ultraviolet co-oxidation technology was directly applied to the treatment of high concentration landfill leachate without the pretreatment operations of dilution, filter, and adjusting the pH conditions. The results showed that: ultrasonic and ultraviolet had certain effects on the ammonia nitrogen removal, and the ammonia nitrogen removing effects became better when the ultrasonic power was greater, or the ultraviolet wavelength was shorter. When the ultrasonic power was 100 W, the ammonia nitrogen removal efficiency was 25.2%, and the UV of 254 nm could decompose 20.2% of the ammonia nitrogen in landfill leathate. In the condition of aeration, ultrasonic and ultraviolet had good synergistic effect on leachate ammonia nitrogen treatment. When the ultrasonic power was 100 W, UV wavelength was 254 nm, and the aeration rate was 150 L/h, the ammonia removal efficiency of high concentration leachate (ammonia nitrogen concentration of 1800 mg/L) reached 98.5% after 6 hours. The paper's research results provide a useful reference for the removal of landfill leachate ammonia nitrogen.