Abstract
The moisture content of municipal solid waste (MSW) and local precipitation events lead to the leachate generation from MSW landfills. The high concentration of organic pollutants in landfill leachate (LL) makes it hazardous, requiring treatment before disposal into the environment. LL is most commonly treated by reverse osmosis (RO), which generates large volumes of concentrate known as RO concentrate. This investigation aims to stabilize the RO concentrate through an inexpensive and effective bioremediation strategy. A bench-scale aerobic suspended growth reactor study was conducted using three commercial conversion agents, namely EM.1, Bokashi powder, and coir pith powder. Overall bench-scale efficiency of 63% was achieved in this study. The onsite studies were conducted in 7.5-m3 artificial ponds with 46% efficiency amid atmospheric influences and constraints. The overall efficiencies of both bench and field-scale studies were derived by ascertaining the arithmetic mean of the individual efficiency of the following parameters: chemical oxygen demand (COD), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), and total dissolved solids (TDS). In contrast, the control pond with no conversion agents showed an increase in pollution concentration over the 100 days of retention time. The findings revealed that the investigated technology had a marginally lower evaporation rate and performed relatively well compared to traditional solar evaporation ponds. Moreover, the technology can be easily scaled-up and readily applied for RO concentrate treatment in MSW landfills.
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Data Availability
The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are highly grateful to HiMSW Ltd. for extending permission to conduct the practical studies. Also, the authors would like to record their sincere gratitude to the Ramky group volunteers and EPTRI, who have contributed to the successful execution of the present research.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Atun Roy Choudhury and Neha Singh. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Atun Roy Choudhury, P. Sankar Ganesh, and Jitesh Lalwani and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Choudhury, A.R., Singh, N., Palani, S.G. et al. Bioremediation of reverse osmosis concentrate generated from the treatment of landfill leachate. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 93934–93951 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-28957-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-28957-0