Adsorbent supplemented treatment of landfill leachate in sequencing batch reactor

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Date
2006
Authors
Lim, Suat Ping
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Abstract
The objective of this study is to evaluate the performance of the sequencing batch reactor (SBR) with and without the addition of adsorbent in the removal of oxygen demand (COD) and ammoniacal nitrogen (AN) from landfill leachate. Two identical plexiglass SBRs were operated with FILL, REACT, SETTLE, DRAW and IDLE periods in the ratio of 2:12:2:1:7 for a cycle time of 24 h. Reactor R-PAC was fed with a mixture of synthetic wastewater and increasing strength of leachate (115-170 mg/L AN) as well as increasing dosage of powdered activated carbon (PAC) (0.5-1.5 g/cycle). Whilst reactor RMRH received a mixture of the same synthetic wastewater and increasing strength of leachate (115-215 mg/L AN) as well as increasing dosage of ethylenediamine-modified rice husk (MRH) (0.5-1.0 g/cycle). The results showed that after the introduction of leachate, the COD removal efficiency was reduced from 90% for both reactors to 72% for reactor R-PAC and 79% for reactor R-MRH. Treatment of leachate at higher strength was sustainable only if PAC or MRH was added. The beneficial effect of MRH was seen in its ability to sustain the COD removal in R-MRH of above 70% at the leachate strength of 215 mg/L AN with the dosage of 0.5 g/cycle. In comparison, the COD removal in R-PAC above 70% at the leachate strength of 170 mg/L AN was sustainable if higher PAC dosage of 1.5 g/cycle was added. The AN removal efficiency for both reactors was almost 100% before and after the introduction of leachate at the strength of 115 mg/L AN but deteriorated when the leachate strength was increased. At the leachate strength of 170 mg/L AN, the AN removal efficiency in reactor R-PAC was sustained at almost 100% with PAC addition of 1.5 g/cycle. The same AN removal efficiency was achieved in reactor R-MRH at a lower MRH dosage of 0.5 g/cycle for the leachate strength of 215 mg/L AN. The results of kinetic study showed that the rates of COD and AN removal during the REACT period can be described by first-order kinetics. The addition of leachate resulted in the effective inhibition of the conversion of nitrite nitrogen (NO2 - -N) to nitrate nitrogen (NO3 - -N). The addition of PAC and MRH, respectively, helped to sustain the rates of COD and AN removal at higher leachate strength of up to 170 and 215 mg/L AN. This indicates that the addition of adsorbents had minimized the toxic effect of leachate with MRH showing more effectiveness than PAC.
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Master
Keywords
Science Chemistry , Adsorbent supplemented , landfill leachate , batch reactor
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