Pilot aerobic membrane bioreactor and nanofiltration for municipal landfill leachate treatment

The purpose of this article is to evaluate the integration of the air stripping, membrane bioreactor (MBR) and nanofiltration (NF) processes for the treatment of landfill leachate (LFL). Pretreatment by air stripping, without adjustment of pH, removed 65% of N-NH3 present in LFL. After pretreatment, the effluent was treated in MBR obtaining 44% of COD removal, and part of the N-NH3 was converted to nitrite and nitrate, which was later removed in the post-treatment. Nanofiltration was shown to be an effective process to improve the removal of organic compounds, the high toxicity present in LFL and nitrite and nitrate generated in the MBR. The system (air stripping + MBR + nanofiltration) obtained great efficiency of removal in most parameters analyzed, with overall removal of COD, ammonia, color and toxicity approximately 88, 95, 100 and 100%, respectively. By this route, treated landfill leachate may be reused at the landfill as water for dust arrestment and also as earth work on construction sites.