Optimization of Photo-Fenton Treatment of Mature Landfill Leachate

Gan Chin Heng; Emad Soliman Elmolla; Malay Chaudhuri

Optimization of Photo-Fenton Treatment of Mature Landfill Leachate

Gan Chin Heng ¹, Emad Soliman Elmolla ², Malay Chaudhuri ¹

Affiliations
1 Deptt. of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Bandar Seri Iskandar, 31750 Tronoh, Perak, Malaysia
2 Deptt. of Civil Engineering, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt

Abstract
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Photo-Fenton treatment of a mature landfill leachate was optimized by using the response surface methodology (RSM). The optimum operating variables to achieve 70% removal of COD, 80% removal of colour and 80% removal of NH₃-N were: H₂O₂/COD molar ratio 3.75, H₂O₂/Fe²⁺ molar ratio 10.5 and irradiation time 1.5 h. There was good agreement (< 2% error) between experimental removal efficiency and model prediction. The characteristics of the photo-Fenton treated leachate were: NH₃-N 112 mg/L, colour 108 Pt-Co Unit, COD 350 mg/L, BOD₅ 116 mg/L and BOD₅/COD ratio 0.33, indicating that the treated leachate was amenable to biological treatment. The study has revealed that RSM is an effective tool to optimize the treatment process and photo-Fenton is an effective pretreatment of mature landfill leachate for biological treatment.