Treatment of leachate from municipal solid waste of Mostaganem district in Algeria: Decision support for advising a process treatment

Abstract

The aim of this work is to propose a plan for the choice of a suitable process for the treatment of a young leachate from municipal solid waste. Classical processes were applied: Fenton process, the coupling coagulation-Fenton process and the adsorption on powdered activated carbon (PAC). The study involves synthesised leachates from three types of wastes collected from sanitary landfill (SL): leachate of putrescible fraction (Lp), paper-cardboard (Lpc), sawdust (Ls) and the one of landfill (Lsl). The optimal operating conditions have been determined for the three processes: Fenton: [H₂O₂] = 6.8 g L^-1 and [Fe²⁺] = 2.8 g L^-1, coagulation: [Fe³⁺] = 0.3 g L^-1 and adsorption: [PAC] = 60 g L^-1. The three processes gave reduction rates of chemical oxygen demand ranging from 50% to 85% for Lp, 87% to 97% for Lpc and 61% to 87% for Ls. Whereas for Lsl, it was of 45%, 56% and 80% for the Fenton, coagulation-Fenton and adsorption processes, respectively. A modelling study was conducted to calculate the chemical oxygen demand of leachate produced during 25 years for different thicknesses of waste. This predicted value is used to advise for the process treatment to apply and to assess the environmental impacts in the long term.