Treatment of Leachate from Open Dumpsite of Municipal Solid Waste by Ozone Based Advanced Oxidation Process

Open dumping of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) results in generation of leachate that contains large amounts of organic matter, ammonia, heavy metals, chlorinated organics, phenolic compounds, phthalates, and pesticide residues which irreparably contaminate both surface and groundwater. Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOP) have been reported as one of the effective treatment methods, especially in improving the biodegradability of the leachate as well as effective in removing recalcitrant organics. With AOP pre-treatment rendered the leachate becomes more amenable to further treatment using biological treatment, adsorption, or ion-exchange processes. The study reported in this paper mainly aims at assessing the suitability of ozone and peroxone (O3+H2O2) based advanced oxidation processes (AOP) for the treatment of MSW leachate from the open dumpsite. The effect of reaction time, impact of O3 dose, and H2O2 concentration on the efficiency of COD removal, improvement in the biodegradability of the leachate, and pH change were determined as the performance parameters for the treatment process. The maximum COD removal efficiency was found to be 46% and 82% with ozone alone (3975 mg/L) and with ozone (9275 mg/L) + 50 mg/L H2O2 each with 120 min. reaction time. It is also found that the BOD5/COD ratio has been increased from 0.09 to 0.58 at optimum O3 + 50 mg/L H2O2 treatment would offer as an effective method for increasing the biodegradability.