Landfill leachate treatment using fungi and fungal enzymes: a review

Landfill leachate raises a huge risk to human health and the environment as it contains a high concentration of organic and inorganic contaminants, heavy metals, ammonia, and refractory substances. Among leachate treatment techniques, the biological methods are more environmentally benign and less expensive than the physical-chemical treatment methods. Over the last few years, fungal-based treatment processes have become popular due to their ability to produce powerful oxidative enzymes like peroxidases and laccases. Fungi have shown better removal efficiency in terms of color, ammonia, and COD. However, their use in the treatment of leachate is relatively recent and still needs to be investigated. This review article assesses the potential of fungi and fungal-derived enzymes in treating landfill leachate. The review also compares different enzymes involved in the fungal catabolism of organic pollutants and the enzyme degradation mechanisms. The effect of parameters like pH, temperature, contact time, dosage variation, heavy metals and ammonia are discussed. The paper also explores the reactor configuration used in the fungal treatment and the techniques used to improve leachate treatment efficacy, like pretreatment and fungi immobilisation. Finally, the review summarises the limitations and the future direction of work required to adapt the fungal application for leachate treatment on a large scale.

Development and application of a predictive model for advanced wastewater treatment by adsorption onto powdered activated carbon

This work presents a mathematical method to describe adsorptive removal of organic micropollutants (OMPs) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from wastewater treatment plant effluent using powdered activated carbon (PAC). The developed model is based on the tracer model (TRM) as a modification of the ideal adsorbed solution theory (IAST) and uses the fictive component approach for organic matter fractionation. It enables the simulation of multisolute adsorption of OMPs considering competitive adsorption behavior of organic background compounds (OBC). Adsorption equilibrium data for DOC and seven different OMPs as well as kinetic data for DOC were derived from batch experiments performed with secondary clarifier effluent of two municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTP 1 and WWTP 2). Two conventional PAC products were investigated as well as one biogenic PAC (BioPAC). Verification and validation of the fitting results based on operational data of WWTP 1 showed promising prediction of DOC and OMP removal efficiency. However, when applied to a static simulation of a full-scale PAC adsorption stage, the model overpredicts the removal efficiency of sulfamethoxazole and candesartan. For benzotriazole, carbamazepine or hydrochlorothiazide, predicted removal falls below operational removal. The model can be used to predict removals of good adsorbable OMPs but fails to accurately predict the removals of OMPs with variable or low PAC affinity. The model was further used for a dynamic simulation of DOC and diclofenac effluent concentrations of a full-scale PAC adsorption stage with varying operating conditions and influent concentrations. Results show that the hydraulic retention time (HRT) in the contact reactor is a decisive operational parameter for OMP removal efficiency besides the PAC dose.

High-rate nitrification of saline wastewaters using fixed-bed reactors

Fixed-bed reactor (FBR) is a promising technology for realising robust high-rate nitrification. Only a few studies have investigated the effect of salinity on these systems. In this research work, the effect of gradual stepwise increase in chloride concentration (NaCl content) on the performance of high-rate nitrifying FBRs was studied at loading rates of about 1 kg NH₄⁺-N∙m^-3∙d^-1 at 25 °C. Two lab-scale FBRs having stable biofilms (adapted to 4 g Cl^-/L) grown on commercial media - plastic carrier fed with nanofiltration (NF) permeate of a landfill leachate concentrate, and clay beads fed with synthetic saline wastewater, respectively - were operated using up-flow velocities (u) of about 12 and 8 m/h, respectively, for a period of about 100 days, wherein the chloride content of the feed water was increased from 4 to 16 g/L (electrical conductivity: 13-45 mS/cm). On an average, the FBR packed with plastic carriers (u ≈ 12 m/h) offered ammonia removal percentages greater than 97%, whereas the FBR filled with clay beads due to its low bed porosity (and therefore, u ≈ 8 m/h only) gave nitrification efficiencies of about 70% only. The organic compounds contained in the NF permeate were found to temporarily inhibit the nitrifiers (causing nitrite accumulation), whereas the ammonia removed in the clay beads-packed FBR was transformed almost entirely into nitrate. Increase in chloride content did not have any observable detrimental effect on the performance of the reactors.

Comparison of NF-RO and RO-NF for the Treatment of Mature Landfill Leachates: A Guide for Landfill Operators

Reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofiltration (NF) are among the state-of-the-art technologies for treating landfill leachates. Due to the complexity and variance in the composition of leachates, numerous combinations of multiple technologies are used for their treatment. One process chain for the treatment of raw leachate is RO followed by further concentration of RO-retentate using NF (RO-NF scheme). The aptness of this process train used by some landfill sites around the world (usually with the aim of volume reduction so as to re-inject the concentrate into the landfill) is questionable. This study investigated two schemes RO-NF and NF-RO (nanofiltration of raw leachate followed by reverse osmosis of NF permeate) to identify their merits/demerits. Experiments were conducted in bench scale using commercial membranes: DOW Filmtec NF270 and SW30HR. Filtration trials were performed at different pressures to compare the water and solute transports in the individual stages of the two schemes. Based on the water fluxes and compositions of retentates and permeates; osmotic pressures, energy demands, and other possible operational advantages were discussed. NF-RO offers some advantages and flexibility for leachate treatment besides being energy efficient compared to RO-NF, wherein osmotic pressure steadily increases during operation in turn increasing operation and maintenance costs.

Pretreatment of Wastewater from Licorice Processing-A Preliminary Evaluation

  This study was performed as a preliminary investigation of anaerobic digestion and the activated sludge process as pretreatment options for highly loaded wastewater from licorice processing (approximately 8000 mg COD/L). Only 15% reduction of initial chemical oxygen demand (COD) was achieved by anaerobic digestion, whereas up to 80% reduction was attained with activated sludge process. Adsorption using powdered activated carbon (PAC) was studied for the removal of color and residual organics from the effluent of aerobic treatment. The combination of aerobic biological treatment with activated carbon adsorption offers a high-quality effluent, however only at very high carbon dosage (>2 kg PAC/m3).

Effects of Confinement on Plastic Deformation in Passivated Al Films

Wafer curvature measurements of a trilayer (SiO2 / AlSiCu / Si) structure are compared to that predicted by a weighted sum of individual measurements of SiO2 and AISiCu films on Si, and significant differences are found to exist for temperatures above 200°C. A straightforward analysis of the stresses in each layer has been modeled using an extension of a model by Feng et al. which assumes uniform plastic deformation throughout the Al. The modeling results suggest a straightforeward method for determining stresses in deformable thin films that are confined by elastic overlayers. A comparison of the stress-temperature behavior for unpassivated and passivated AISiCu films reveals that the confined films exhibit less plastic deformation and both higher tension and compression during thermal cycling.