AEROBIC BIOLOGICAL TREATABILITY STUDIES ON LANDFILL LEACHATE WITH NITRIFICATION AND DENITRIFICATION
- Available online in Detritus - Volume 07 - September 2019
- Pages 83-95
Released under CC BY-NC-ND
Copyright: © 2019 CISA Publisher
Abstract
Large pilot-scale treatment trials have examined the treatment of a leachate typical of those found at many closed landfill sites, containing approximately 200mg/l of ammoniacal-N. At such sites, treatment of these leachates with nitrification of ammoniacal-N alone, will not allow discharges of treated leachate to be made into sensitive surface watercourses, because of concerns about nitrate-N. The trials therefore included denitrification processes, by modification of an SBR process configuration, using the waste product glycerol, widely available as a by-product from the production of biodiesel, as the carbon source for denitrification. Initially a nitrification-only Stage 1 treatment trial treated strong, methanogenic leachate containing 2000mg/l of ammoniacal-N and 4000mg/l COD, completely nitrifying all ammoniacal-N to nitrate-N. Following the successful treatment of strong leachate through nitrification, the innovative combined nitrification and denitrification treatment system was constructed. Stage 2 of the treatability trial used this newly designed system to incorporate both aeration and anoxic phases within a single reactor; enabling full nitrification and denitrification of weaker leachate from a closed landfill, containing 150mg/l ammoniacal-N and 200mg/l COD. In particular, the development of an innovative, stable, robust and relatively simple combined nitrification and denitrification process will have wide application at many closed landfill sites, where a reliable and robust treatment process is required, whilst full denitrification of nitrate-N is essential if treated leachate is to be discharged locally into small watercourses. The relative simplicity of the new process, in a single tank, with readily-automated operation and few chemical additions, means that it can be used at remote closed landfills, to produce high quality effluents suitable for discharge into many surface watercourses.Keywords
- Ammoniacal-N removal
- Biological treatment
- Denitrification
- Landfill leachate
- Leachate treatment
- Nitrification
- Treatability trials
Editorial History
- Received: 01 Mar 2019
- Revised: 07 Jun 2019
- Accepted: 02 Jul 2019
- Available online: 01 Aug 2019
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