Treatment of landfill leachate using ASBR combined with zeolite adsorption technology.

Chi Kim Lim,Zaharah Ibrahim,Ismail Ware,Muhamad Hanif Md Nor,Ta Wee Seow,Chin Hong Neoh,Siti Hajar Mat Sarip

doi:10.1007/s13205-016-0513-8

Abstract

Sanitary landfilling is the most common way to dispose solid urban waste; however, improper landfill management may pose serious environmental threats through discharge of high strength polluted wastewater also known as leachate. The treatment of landfill leachate to fully reduce the negative impact on the environment, is nowadays a challenge. In this study, an aerobic sequencing batch reactor (ASBR) was proposed for the treatment of locally obtained real landfill leachate with initial ammoniacal nitrogen and chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentration of 1800 and 3200 mg/L, respectively. ASBR could remove 65 % of ammoniacal nitrogen and 30 % of COD during seven days of treatment time. Thereafter, an effective adsorbent, i.e., zeolite was used as a secondary treatment step for polishing the ammoniacal nitrogen and COD content that is present in leachate. The results obtained are promising where the adsorption of leachate by zeolite further enhanced the removal of ammoniacal nitrogen and COD up to 96 and 43 %, respectively. Furthermore, this combined biological–physical treatment system was able to remove heavy metals, i.e. aluminium, vanadium, chromium, magnesium, cuprum and plumbum significantly. These results demonstrate that combined ASBR and zeolite adsorption is a feasible technique for the treatment of landfill leachate, even considering this effluent’s high resistance to treatment.

Highlights

Population and industrial growth, technological advancements, higher living standards, changes in the productivity and consumption habits has been leading to the rapid increases in both the municipal and industrial solid waste production (Schiopu and Gavrilescu 2010)
Thereafter, an effective adsorbent, i.e., zeolite was used as a secondary treatment step for polishing the ammoniacal nitrogen and chemical oxygen demand (COD) content that is present in leachate
These results demonstrate that combined aerobic sequencing batch reactor (ASBR) and zeolite adsorption is a feasible technique for the treatment of landfill leachate, even considering this effluent’s high resistance to treatment

Summary

Introduction

Population and industrial growth, technological advancements, higher living standards, changes in the productivity and consumption habits has been leading to the rapid increases in both the municipal and industrial solid waste production (Schiopu and Gavrilescu 2010). The sanitary landfill method for the ultimate disposal of solid waste material continues to be widely accepted and used as this is a relatively simple procedure with low cost (Eggen et al 2010). Comparative studies of the various possible methods to eliminate solid urban waste such as incineration, composting, landfilling and so on have shown that the cheapest in terms of exploitation and capital costs, is landfilling (Renou et al 2008). Landfills require proper environmental monitoring during their set-up, operation and long-term post-closure period due to the generation of leachate (a very complex wastewater) which can potentially contaminate nearby surface and ground water if left untreated (Ahmed and Lan 2012).

Methods

Results

Conclusion