Treatment of municipal solid wastes leachate by means of chemical- and electro-coagulation

Abstract

In this study, treatment of municipal solid waste leachate (L1, L2) by means of chemical- and electro-coagulation (EC) methods was investigated. The removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD), total organic carbons (TOC) and color from leachate was experimentally investigated by using chemical- and electro-coagulation. Aluminum and iron were used simultaneously in the reactor as materials for electrodes. Percent of COD, TOC and color removal versus the electro-chemically generated Fe 2+ and Al 3+ doses are examined in this study. The best removal has been achieved in the COD parameter. Thus, in electro-coagulation method, the maximal removal is 87% for the L1 solution, while for L2 it is 90% for Fe 2+ and 77% for L1 and 88% for L2 for Al 3+ ion solutions. High color removal for Fe 2+ is observed for L1 (86%), while for L2 it is approximately 99%. The removal indices for the leachate treatment by chemical coagulants (FeSO 4·7H 2O and Al 2(SO 4) 3·18H 2O) appeared to be lower than for the electrochemically generated Fe 2+ and Al 3+. The results show that electro-coagulation could be considered as an effective alternative solution for the treatment of leachate.