The use of Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOP) for the treatment of landfill leachate

Formation of leachate poses a problem closely related to the use of landfill sites. Landfill leachate is a wastewater, which as a result of permeation elutes mineral and organic compounds from a bed. Due to its diverse composition, both physical and chemical, it is necessary to purify the leachate before its discharge into drains or a natural receiver. The following article shows that there is a variety of pollutants in municipal landfill leachate. It also presents the dependency existing between the age of a landfill site, and the concentration of pollutants in leachate, as well as how it affects biodegradation of contaminants. There were discussed various methods to purify leachate and the physical, chemical, physico-chemical and biochemical processes were compared. Comparing these processes, many factors were taken into account: the efficiency and effectiveness of the processes, their side effects, the costs, the amount of energy that is required for a process to take place, reaction dynamics, and more. A successful purification of leachate with use of a single process unit is not possible. Therefore, there are used hybrid systems that combine biological methods of physico-chemical processes, especially the advanced oxidation processes. The most important among the chemical processes used for treatment of leachate are Advanced Oxidation Processes AOP. Advanced oxidation processes are divided into chemical and photochemical oxidation. The most commonly used methods include oxidation with ozone and hydrogen peroxide and Fenton’s reagent oxidation. Processes using ozone are usually employed as the third stage of landfill leachate treatment. This process allows discharge of the leachate into a receiver. The largest decreases in the number of pollutants are obtained using combined processes. Some of the best effects were observed after employment of oxidation both with ozone and hydrogen peroxide, helping to additionally enhance this process photocatalytically. AOP proved to be the most effective method of treatment of waste water that contains organic products (waste water from chemical and agrochemical industries, textiles, paints, dyes). More conventional techniques cannot be used to treat such compounds because of their high chemical stability and low biodegradability. There was also performed a literature review in the field of biological, physical and chemical purification methods of landfill leachate.