Biodegradability enhancement of municipal landfill leachate

The method of enhancing the biodegradability of landfill leachate via air stripping followed by coagulation/ultrafiltration (UF) processes is introduced. In this study, the air stripping process obtained a removal efficiency of 88.6% for ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N), at an air-to-liquid ratio (A/L) of 3 300 (pH = 11) and after 18 h of stripping. The single coagulation process increased the BOD (biological oxygen demand)/COD (chemical oxygen demand) ratio by 0.089 with a FeCl3 dosage of 570 mg/L, at pH 7.0, and the single UF process increased the BOD/COD ratio from 0.049 to 0.311. However, the combination of coagulation and UF increased the BOD/COD ratio from 0.049 to 0.423, and the final BOD, COD, NH3-N, and colour of the leachate were 1 023 mg/L, 2 845 mg/L, 145 mg/L, and 2 056, respectively, when a 3 kDa molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) membrane was used at an operating pressure of 0.7 MPa. In the ultrafiltration process, the average solution flux (JV), concentration multiple (MC), and retention rate (R) for the COD were 107.3 L/(m2·h), 6.3, and 84.2%, respectively.