Removal of Nitrogen and Phosphorous from Municipal Landfill Leachate Through Land Treatment

The leachate contains dissolved and suspended organic and inorganic, toxic or chemicals pollutants. Leachate can contaminate groundwater, surface water and soil. It can further have detrimental health effects on human being. This study sets out to investigate the effects of land treatment of municipal landfill’s leachate on the natural reduction of nitrogen and phosphorous density existing in the leachate after the pre-treatment in the Aradkouh disposal center. Three pilot studies were utilized to run the present investigation. The pilots included the under-investigation region’s soil planted by Vetiver plant pilot, the region’s intact soil pilot and the artificial composition of the region’s soil including the natural region’s soil, sand and rock stone. The leachate, having passed its initial treatment, passed through the soil and to the pilot. It was collected in the end of the pilots and its nitrogen and phosphorous were measured. However, the land treatment of leachate was conducted in a slow speed range at speeds of 0.2, 0.6 and 1 ml per minute through three repeated times. According to the results, in order to remove phosphate, the best result was obtained in the region’s soil planted with Vetiver plant and at the speed of 0.2 ml per minute which resulted in 98.77% of phosphate removal. In addition, in order to remove nitrogen (organic nitrogen, ammonia and nitrate), the best result was obtained in the region’s soil planted with Vetiver plant and at the speed of 0.2. Moreover, substantial 93.44% reduction in the ammonia and the increase of nitrate was reached.