MBRs for the treatment of high strength old landfill leachate :hollow fiber vs. flat sheet -

Abstract

The generation of landfill leachate remains the main problem associated with municipal solid waste landfilling. In this study, membrane bioreactors (MBRs) were tested for leachate treatment through a combination of denitrification and aerobic processes to examine and compare the effectiveness of two membrane formats: hollow fiber and flat sheet. For this purpose, a laboratory scale MBR was constructed and operated to treat a leachate with COD (3,900-7,800 mg-L), BOD₅ (439.74-1536.67 mg-L), TP (10.5-59 mg-L), PO₄³⁻ (5-58), TN (1,500-5,200 mg-L), and NH₃ (1,770-4,410 mg-L). Both membranes, the flat sheet and hollow fiber, achieved comparable BOD (92.2 vs. 93.2percent) and TP (79.4 vs. 78.5percent) removals. However, while slightly higher COD and phosphate removal efficiencies were obtained with the Hollow Fiber membrane (71.4 vs. 68.5percent and 87.3 vs. 81.3percent, respectively), significantly higher TN and ammonia removal rates (61.2 vs. 49.4 and 63.4 vs. 47.8, respectively) were achieved by the Flat Sheet membrane. The experimental results contribute in filling a gap towards managing stabilized landfill leachate and providing guidelines for corresponding MBR applications