A comparative treatment of stabilized landfill leachate: coagulation and activated carbon adsorption vs. electrochemical oxidation

Environ Technol. 2009 Dec 14;30(14):1547-53. doi: 10.1080/09593330903252240.

Abstract

This work investigated the treatment of a landfill leachate that had previously undergone biological treatment. Two treatment schemes were compared: the first one involved coagulation followed by activated carbon adsorption, whilst the second was electrochemical treatment. Coagulation with alum resulted in a 50% removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD). The optimum aluminium dose was 3 mM Al3+. Activated carbon adsorption of stabilized leachate that had been previously treated by coagulation resulted in an overall 80% removal of COD. However, a significant part of the organic matter (corresponding to 170 mg/L) was non-adsorbable. Electrochemical oxidation over a boron-doped diamond electrode led to about 90% COD removal in 240 min with the resulting stream having a COD content as low as 50 mg/L. An increase in current intensity from 15 A to 21 A had no practical effect on the overall COD removal, which followed first-order kinetics.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Evaluation Study

MeSH terms

  • Charcoal / chemistry*
  • Electrochemistry / methods*
  • Filtration / methods*
  • Organic Chemicals / chemistry
  • Organic Chemicals / isolation & purification*
  • Water Pollutants, Chemical / analysis
  • Water Pollutants, Chemical / chemistry*
  • Water Pollutants, Chemical / isolation & purification*
  • Water Purification / methods*

Substances

  • Organic Chemicals
  • Water Pollutants, Chemical
  • Charcoal