Full-scale MBR applications for leachate treatment in China: Practical, technical, and economic features

Though having been applied for decades in the leachate treatment, membrane bioreactors (MBRs) have not attracted as much attention as their application in the municipal wastewater treatment. A timely survey for full-scale applications of MBRs treating leachate would be necessary to present a thorough knowledge and implication in this field. In this study, 175 full-scale MBRs treating leachate (with individual treatment capacity of ≥100 m³/d) in China were comprehensively analyzed. The accumulative treatment capacity exceeded 65,000 m³/d in 2018, and such projects were primarily distributed in areas with developed economy and large production of municipal solid waste. Sanitary landfill leachate owned 70 % of the leachate-treating MBRs' capacity, while the proportion for incineration plants increased gradually. Synchronously, leachate from incineration plants was more degradable than that from sanitary landfills. MBRs were advantageous to pollutant removal, fouling control, and successive energy mitigation of the whole treatment processes. The investment and footprint of processes adopting MBRs were medially ∼90,000 CNY/(m³/d) and ∼15 m²/(m³/d) respectively, and the energy consumption was 20-30 kW h/m³. The technical and economical applicability and environmental policy forces would strengthen a predictable increment of market share of MBRs in leachate treatment field in the future.