Landfill leachate management by using combined adsorption and biological treatment

Landfilling is most generally accepted disposal way for solid waste management due to low cost. However, landfilling will lead to production of turbid, odorous and dark brownish leachate wastewater. Leachate wastewater will carry different levels of biodegradable and non-biodegradable organic materials that will affect the leachate treatability, biodegradability and treatment method selection. In this study, biological treatment process is used together with physical adsorption method. 24% (w/v) of light weight aggregates is used as adsorbent for pollutants removal and further biological treatment with B. panacihumi strain ZB1 is used to polish the final effluent quality. As reported by previous study, sole biological treatment with B. panacihumi strain ZB1 able to remove nearly 40% of COD and 40% to 50% of ammonia nitrogen from leachate wastewater. In this research study, use of light weight aggregates together with B. panacihumi strain ZB1 for leachate treatment able to remove more than 70% of ammonia nitrogen from leachate wastewater. However, this combined treatment process does not show any significant effect on final COD level in leachate wastewater. Hence, other treatment method or optimization should be carried out to reduce the COD concentration in the leachate wastewater.