Fungi in Landfill Leachate Treatment Process

The landfill leachate has high concentration of COD, ammonia and other recalcitrant composition compounds. The amount of eachwhich is mainly largely dependent on the age of the landfill. The conventional leachate treatments can be classified as chemical-physical treatments and biological treatments. Using fungi to treat leachate is an emerging research topic. Fungi, with their excellent recalcitrant compound degradability, have been used to treat industrial wastewater that contains toxic or recalcitrant compound. Due to the complex composition and toxicity of landfill leachate, fungi have showed shown better removal efficiency in terms of COD, toxicity and color removal than the conventional leachate treatment. White rot fungi species and yeast are so far the two species that have been studied in treating landfill leachate. Future research should be extended to the other fungi species as well asand also on the impact of ammonia in landfill leachate on the fungi treatment process.