Landfill Leachate Treatment by Using Two Stage Anaerobic Aerobic Systems

Abstract

In Sri Lanka, the Municipal Solid Waste is disposed in to sanitary landfills or dumping sites. The generated leachate at dumping sites causes many problems leading to various social, cultural, environmental impacts. Hence, it is decided to conduct this research to find out suitable solution for proper treatment for the leachate generated at waste disposal sites. In this research, two stage biological treatment processes were used to treat the leachate. At first stage up flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) is used. The important of the UASB is it removes high amount of BOD5 and COD in efficiently. However the UASB process is not capable for removing fair amount of nutrients. To overcome this problem an aerobic system sequence batch reactor (SBR) was used after the UASB. The specific task of this introducing this SBR system is to study the capabilities of removing nitrogen in leachate treatment. In the total system, the BOD5 removal efficiency is around 92% and COD removal efficiency is reached to 54%. Therefore this system can be used as secondary treatment system, to treat leachate.