Treatment of landfill leachates by comparing advanced oxidation and coagulation-flocculation processes coupled with activated carbon adsorption

Abstract

This work compares two pre-treatments (coagulation-flocculation process (CF) and the Fenton oxidation Method (FE)) of the activated carbon adsorption process (AC) to optimize the removal of the organic compounds in landfill leachates. The content of organic compounds was measured in terms of three global parameters: colour, chemical oxygen demand (COD) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC). The result obtained in discontinuous reactor conditions showed an increase in colour removal from 1.5 to 2.0 times and a decrease of COD between 0.3 to 0.5 times for the FE-AC treatment, in relation to the CF-AC treatment. On the other hand, the data obtained in continuous reactor conditions (packed columns) showed that the column fed with leachate CF exhibited operation times 1.3 times longer and a better physiochemical quality in the filtrate (COD and colour) than the one fed with the FE leachate. Nevertheless, the adsorption capacities in the colour removal column of COD and DOC were higher for the FE leachate.