Treatment of landfill leachate by

Activated Sludge Process, Electro-

Fenton Oxidation with Sequencing
Batch Reactor methods.

Presentation by:
Guided by: Surya Tedlapu,
Dr. Jignesh B Patel, M-tech 2nd year,
Asst. Professor, SMFE, P18SM011, SMFE,
AMD, SVNIT, Surat. AMD.
Leachate:
 Precipitated water reacts with landfill waste physically, chemically and
biologically to produce leachate.
 Consists of organic and inorganic substances in dissolved or suspended form.
 Causes subsurface and ground water contamination.
 It physical appearance is black or yellow or orange colour, bad odour, acidic
and offensive.
 Its composition may vary depending on degree of compaction, climate and
moisture content in waste.
Detection of Polluted zones:

The methods to detect and identify the lateral and vertical extent of subsurface

contamination are

 Geo-physical method (Electro-magnetic survey method).

 Drilling and sampling method (Collection of soil samples).

In order to avoid the contamination of subsoil and ground water, it is a must to

design a landfill with liner and cover system.

Liner and Cover system:

Components of Liner and Cover system

Treatment of landfill leachate:

 A leachate collection arrangement is provided at the base of landfill where

leachate is collected and transported to treatment plant.

 The objective of treatment is to reduce the concentration of leachate.

Some of the methods to treat leachate are

 Chemical Treatment and Activated Sludge process.

 Combined Electro-Fenton Oxidation with Sequencing Batch Reactor method.

Case study -1:
Activated Sludge Process
 Leachate generation from the municipal solid waste became a major problem to

surface water and ground water in Borg El Arab site in Cairo, Egypt.

 The objective of this study is to utilize a natural low cost material as an accelerator

in the treatment process.

 The samples of leachate is collected from the site for the analysis.

 Chemical and Biological treatments are required for the leachate sample.
Properties of leachate and solid waste from Borg El Arab site:

Chemical properties of Leachate (Raghab et al. 2013) Composition of MSW (Raghab et al. 2013)

Physical properties of MSW (Raghab et al. 2013)

Chemical Treatment of Leachate:

 Involves addition of coagulants like Alum.

 Rotating speed of mixer is 100-120 rpm.

 Detention time is 1-3 minutes.

 Settled particles (SO4-, Cl-, P2O5, NO3, NH4)

are removed.

Chemical treatment of leachate (Raghab et al. 2013)

Biological Treatment of Leachate:
 Aerobic microorganisms are used for biodegradation.

 It involves Suspended growth process.

 Accelerators used are Perlite and Bentonite.

 Speed of mixer is 350 rpm with detention time 3min.

 Optimum dosage of Alum, Perlite and Bentonite are

90 mg/lt

Activated Sludge Process (Raghab et al. 2013)

Turbidity removal efficiency (Raghab et al. 2013) Conductivity removal efficiency (Raghab et al. 2013)

BOD removal efficiency (Raghab et al. 2013) TDS effluent removal (Raghab et al. 2013)
Conclusions:
Turbidity, conductivity, BOD and COD removal
efficiencies with optimum dosage of Alum
respectively are
 Using Alum- 82.5%, 80.5%, 82.5% and 82.5%
 Using Perlite- 87.4%, 86.7%, 89.9% and 92.8%
 Using Bentonite- 85.0%, 83.5%, 86.5%, and 96.5% COD effluent removal efficiency
(Raghab et al. 2013)
 Perlite and Bentonite gave the worst removal
performance for TDS.
Case study -2:
Combined Electro-Fenton oxidation and
Sequencing Batch Reactor

The rapid increases in both the municipal and industrial solid waste
generations in Taiwan, the rate of per capita municipal solid waste
(MSW) generation was increased from 0.67 to 1.1 kg/person/day
representing an annual increase of 7.1%. Of the daily MSW production in
Taiwan, only 5% were incinerated and the rest was landfilled.
Treatment of Landfill Leachate:
The chemical and biological treatment of leachate involves

 Chemical Coagulation.

 Electro-Fenton Reactor.

 Sequencing Batch Reactor.

The treatment units are operated

In Batchwise fashion. Flow process of the chemical and biological treatments of landfill
leachate (Lin and Chang, 2000).
Chemical Coagulation:

 The chemical coagulation involves Pre-treatment of leachate employs

Poly-aluminium chloride (PAC) and

Polymer (coagulant aid).

 Jar test is conducted for determining the optimum amounts of PAC and Polymer.

 Natural settling of influents lasted for 60 minutes.

 Samples are taken for the measurement of properties.

Electro-Fenton Oxidation:
 A desired amount of hydrogen peroxide
(H2O2) is chosen and added to electrolytic
cell.
 Electro-Fenton oxidation lasted for 30 min
per 1lit of leachate.
 The dissolved cast iron along with H2O2
acts as Fenton Reagent.
 Samples are taken for water quality
measurements. Electro-Fenton Reactor (Lin and Chang, 2000)
Composition of water quality after Chemical coagulation and Electro-Fenton oxidation (Lin and Chang, 2000).
Sequencing Batch Reactor:
 It operates on the principles of five phases
Fill, React, Settle, Draw and Idle.
 The tank was filled with 7 lit of leachate
effluent from the electro-Fenton process.
and 21 lit of raw municipal sewage wastewater.
 wastewater mixture was continuously aerated at
an air flow rate of 25 lit/min for 9 h, followed
by 2.8 h of activated sludge settling.
 Samples were taken from the discharged clear
Experimental setup for sequencing batch reactor
effluent for water quality measurements.
 Effect of H2O2 addition on the electro-Fenton oxidation with initial COD 951 mg/lt (Lin and Chang, 2000).

Effect of leachate pH on the COD and Colour Removal (a), The COD (a) and colour (b) removal for various SBR
residual H2O2, final pH and Consumption (b) of the electro-Fenton treatment cycles (Lin and Chang, 2000).
oxidation (Lin and Chang, 2000).
Effect of initial leachate pH (a) and PAC dosage on the Changes of COD and colour removal and residual H2O2 as
COD and colour removal (Lin and Chang, 2000). a function of time (a) and the effect of H2O2 addition on
COD removal (b). (Lin and Chang, 2000).
Conclusions:

 At an optimum pH 4, the oxidation process rendered the leachate effluent totally

colourless (i.e. 100% colour removal).
 An optimum H2O2 dosage of 750 mg/lit yields a very good COD, colour, NH3-N and
phosphorus removal.
 Sequencing batch reactor (SBR) process elevates its water quality to the standard for
direct discharge or for reuse as non-potable water.
References:
[1] R.H. Kettunen, J.A. Rintala, (1998) Performance of an on-site UASB reactor treating leachate at low temperature, Water Res.
32, 537–546.
[2] R.H. Kettunen, T.H. Hoilijoki, (2009) J.A. Rintala, Anaerobic and sequential anaerobic-aerobic treatments of municipal
landfill
leachate at low temperatures, Bioresour. Technol. 58, 40–41.
[3] Safaa M. Raghab, Ahmed M. Abd El Meguid, Hala A. Hegazi. (2013) Treatment of leachate from municipal solid waste
landfill.
[4] G. Andreottola, P. Cannas, (1992) Chemical and biological characteristics of landfill leachate, Elsevier Appl. Sci. 9, 65–88.
[5] L.M. Chu, K.C. Cheung, M.H. Wong, (1994) Variations in the chemical properties of landfill leachate, J. Environ. Manage. 18,
105–117.
[6] D.J. Barker, D.C. Stuckey, (1999) A review of soluble microbial products (SMP) in waste water treatment systems, J. Water
Res. 33 (1999)3063–3082.
[7] S.F. Aquino, D.C. Stuckey, (2003) Soluble microbial products formation in anaerobicchemostats in the presence of toxic
compounds, J. Water Res. 38 255–266.
[8] Kai wang, Lusheng Li, Fengxun Tan, and Daoji wu. (2018) Treatment of landfill leachateusing Activated sludge Technology.
[9] Leu H. G. and Lin S. H. (1998) Cost-benefit analysis of resource material recycling. Resources, Conser. And Recycling 23,
183-191.
[10] Sheng H Lin*M and Chin C Chang. (2000) Treatment of landfill leachate by combined Electro-Fenton oxidation and