Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
2 | 2009
ABSTRACT
Landfills are among the most affordable and acceptable methods in terms of public health and Patricia Torres
Jenny A. Rodrı́guez
environmental protection for the final disposal of solid waste. Leachate treatment incorporated Luz E. Barba
Luis F. Marmolejo
into anaerobic domestic wastewater systems could be a viable and efficient alternative which Carlos A. Pizarro
would allow minimizing implementation and operation costs of the landfill, to reduce Escuela de Ingenierı́a de Recursos
Naturales y del Ambiente,
requirements of chemical inputs such as pH conditioners and phosphorus supply. This study Universidad del Valle,
Ciudad Universitaria Meléndez,
showed the potential of anaerobic treatment in an UASB reactor treating a combination of Calle 13 No. 100-00, A.A. 25360,
Cali,
domestic wastewater and leachate in a 5% volumetric ratio of leachate. Under these conditions Colombia
the reactor assimilated properly the leachate fraction incorporated. With a HRT of 8 h and a mean E-mail: patoloz@univalle.edu.co;
yennyrod@univalle.edu.co;
volumetric organic load of 2.84 kg m23 d21 COD removal efficiencies around 70% were obtained, luebarba@univalle.edu.co;
lufermar@univalle.edu.co;
without inhibition problems; however, the necessity of a complementary treatment for improving carpizar@gmail.com
INTRODUCTION
Landfills constitute one of the most economical and (c) chemical and physical methods: chemical oxidation,
acceptable methods from the point of view of public health adsorption, chemical precipitation, coagulation/floculation,
and environmental protection for the final disposal of solid sedimentation/flotation and air stripping (Renou et al.
waste. Since its conception and during the design, con- 2008). Because of leachate high concentrations of refractory
struction, operation and decomission phases, landfills must and organic and inorganic contaminants, it is difficult to
guarantee the minimization and control of the enviromental obtain satisfactory treatment efficiency by a stand alone
and sanitary effects that their implementation could cause, method (Neczaj et al. 2007; Salem et al. 2008) which
being one of those environmental inconveniences the one makes necessary a combination of them.
associated to the inappropriate handling of the generated Combined treatment of leachate and domestic waste-
leachate. Landfill leachate is a potentially polluting liquid, water could constitute an economically-feasible, easy to
which is usually associated with soil, surface water and operate and efficient alternative in which the degradation of
groundwater contamination. organic pollutants would be favoured by dilution, providing
A number of leachate treatments have been applied a better control of the influent characteristics, since
with varying degrees of success. These treatments can leachate contaminant load and flowrates have a high
be classified into three groups: (a) leachate transfer: degree of variability in quality and quantity in time
recycling and combined treatment with domestic sewage; (Diamadopoulos et al. 1997; del Borghi et al. 2003). Some
(b) biodegradation: aerobic and anaerobic processes and of the requirements to make viable to treat the leachate
doi: 10.2166/wst.2009.365
492 P. Torres et al. | Combined treatment of leachate from sanitary landfill and municipal wastewater Water Science & Technology—WST | 60.2 | 2009
together with domestic wastewater in the domestic waste- efficient alternative for the treatment of the leachate
water plant are the leachate transport readiness to the generated in the landfills.
domestic wastewater treatment plant, the capacity of the
wastewater plant to assimilate the daily amount of leachate
and the compatibility of the process with the characteristics
METHODS
of that material (Facchin et al. 2000).
Different from the treatment of leachate alone, a Two UASB reactors at lab scale, with a useful volume of 6L
favorable aspect of the combined treatment of leachate were operated during an eight months period. In the first
with domestic wastewaters is that nutrients addition is reactor (R1) the domestic wastewater treatment was
not necessary, because the nitrogen is supplied by the conducted and in the second reactor (R2) a combination
leachate and the phosphorus by the domestic wastewater, of domestic wastewater and leachate in a volumetric ratio of
which reduces operational costs and simplifies the leachate of 5%. This volumetric ratio was selected according
operation (Renou et al. 2008). In addition, the increase to a previous study of anaerobic biodegradation of the
in the organic load resulting from the leachate addition to evaluated leachate, which showed that a percentage
the domestic wastewater will result in a higher methane of less than 10% does not cause any inhibitory effect of
production in the anaerobic treatment, which represents the domestic wastewater anaerobic treatment (Barba et al.
an important potential for energetic exploitation. How- 2008). The reactors were operated at an almost constant
ever, the inhibitory effect of some organic compounds temperature of 278C.
with low biodegradability and heavy metals which reduce The leachate was obtained from a local landfill which
the treatment efficiency must be avoided (Çeçen & Aktas receives domestic solid waste generated by sixteen Colom-
2004). This situation can be controlled by selecting the bian towns. Raw domestic wastewater was taken from the
volumetric ratio of leachate in the total wastewater influent of a wastewater treatment plant located in Cali-
according to the physico-chemical characteristics and Colombia. Leachate and raw wastewater were character-
including homogenization tanks in the wastewater treat- ized and stored in a refrigerator at 48C to retard biological
ment plant. decomposition. The inoculation sludge was taken from a
Combined treatment of leachate with domestic UASB reactor treating domestic wastewater and was
wastewaters in biological systems at lab and real scale acclimatized in batch during a month period prior to the
was investigated by several researchs (Kelly 1987; start up of the UASB reactors (VS/TS: 0.54; SMA:
Diamadopoulos et al. 1997; Facchin et al. 2000; Çeçen & 0.31 g COD-CH4 g VSS21 d21). The conditioning of the
Çakiroğlu 2001; Silva et al. 2002; del Borghi et al. 2003; sludge consisted in the gradual increase of leachate
Fueyo et al. 2003; Çeçen & Aktas 2004). Experimental percentage to the domestic wastewater used as substrate
results show that the application of different volumetric until reaching a 5% proportion of leachate.
ratios of leachate depend on the characteristics such as The start up of the reactors consisted in the progressive
the leachate age and the level of compounds of difficult reduction of the hydraulic retention time (HRT) and the
biodegradation and heavy metals. In all cases volumetric increase of the volumetric organic load based on the stable
ratio of leachate less than 20% (v/v) have been found to be behavior of the COD and VFAs effluent concentrations. The
appropriate, with prevalence of values less than 10%, initial HRT for both reactors was 24 h, typical value in the
reaching destruction efficiencies of chemical oxygen start up of anaerobic reactors treating domestic wastewater,
demand (COD) among 50 and 80%. which was progressively reduced up to 8 h (regular design
In this work, two UASB reactors at lab scale, one condition for UASB reactors treating domestic wastewater
treating domestic waste waters and the second treating a in tropical climate).
combination of domestic wastewater and leachate in a The reactor behavior was controlled by monitoring the
volumetric ratio of leachate of 5% have been operated in parameters pH, COD, BOD5, TSS, TKN, NHþ
4 ZN and
order to select the best operating conditions to perform an NOXZN which were analysed in accordance with Standard
493 P. Torres et al. | Combined treatment of leachate from sanitary landfill and municipal wastewater Water Science & Technology—WST | 60.2 | 2009
ammonia, which normally is one of the inhibitory 1 and 2 kg COD m23 d21. In R2 (Figure 2) two variation
ranges were obtained, the first one (HRT between 24 and
Table 1 | Average characteristics of the influents to R1 and R2
16 hours) was characterized by low volumetric organic
Domestic load values (around 1 kg COD m23 d21) and the second
wastewater:
one (12 to 8 hours) showed higher values between 2 and
Domestic leachate
Variable wastewater (R1) mixture (R2) 3.8 kg COD m23 d21. This variation of the volumetric
pH (unit) 7.1– 8.2 7.0 – 7.3 organic load was due to the COD concentration variation
Bicarbonate alkalinity 230 711 in the leachate.
(mg CaCO3 L21) R1 reactor showed some instability signals explained
Total alcalinity 303 893 by a slight accumulation of VFAs when HRT was 10 h.
(mg CaCO3 L21)
Nevertheless, the reactor recovered its stability after a
VFAs (meq L21) 4.3 8.1
short period confirming that the start up strategy based
COD Total (mg L21) 435 982
on the reduction of the HRT was suitable and reaching
COD Filtered (mg L21) 330 743
stability conditions and maximum treatment capacity
BOD5 (mg L21) 290 650
(COD reduction efficiency around 70%) for a HRT of 8 h
BOD5/COD 0.67 0.66
in a period of 35 d. For R2 reactor, the start up took
TKN (mg L21) 72 148
longer, reaching stability conditions and suitable DQO
NHþ
4 -N (mg L
21
) 57 111
removal efficiency after 100 days of operations with a HRT
COD:N:P 350:46:8 350:40:5
of 12 h. Due to the slight variation of the VOL from these
494 P. Torres et al. | Combined treatment of leachate from sanitary landfill and municipal wastewater Water Science & Technology—WST | 60.2 | 2009