Effective removal of organic and inorganic pollutants from stabilized sanitary landfill leachate using a combined Fe2O3 nanoparticles/electroflotation process

Abstract The effective removal of organic and inorganic pollutants from landfill leachate is challenging because of their high concentration. In this study, stabilized landfill leachate was treated with the organic and inorganic pollutants, such as color, turbidity, ammonium nitrogen (NH3–N), total dissolved solid (TDS), and chemical oxygen demand (COD) with a combination of Fe2O3 nanoparticles as adsorbents and electroflotation technology. Pollutant removal was achieved with Fe2O3 nanoparticles and electroflotation separately to determine the optimal experimental conditions for adsorption using Fe2O3 nanoparticles (pH, doses, and contact time) and electroflotation (pH, contact time, and current density). Finally, the optimal experimental conditions for both treatment processes were employed to remove COD, color, NH3–N, turbidity, and TDS from the landfill leachate. The combination of adsorption with Fe2O3 nanoparticles and electroflotation technology was effective in removing over 96 % of COD, 99 % of NH3–N, approximately 100 % of color, 99 % of turbidity, and 99 % of TDS from landfill leachate. The residual COD, NH3–N, color, turbidity, and TDS were determined to be approximately 89 mg/L, 4.5 mg/L, 12 ADMI, 5 NTU, and 61 mg/L, respectively, which complies with the standard regulation of leachate discharge limits set by the Department of Environment (DoE), Malaysia in 2009. The finding of this study demonstrates an effective treatment method to remove the organic and inorganic pollutants from stabilized landfill leachate.