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A comparative study of removal efficiency of organic contaminant in landfill leachate-contaminated groundwater under micro-nano-bubble and common bubble aeration

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Abstract

Landfill leachate-contaminated groundwater is widespread all over the world. In order to study the organic contaminant removal efficiency of landfill leachate-contaminated groundwater under oxygen micro-nano-bubble (MNB) aeration, a series of lab-scale experiments of oxygen MNB aeration as well as common bubble (CB) aeration were conducted. Firstly, the difference in mass transfer, microbial activity enhancement, and contaminant removal efficiency between MNB and CB aeration was estimated. Then, the composition variations of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in groundwater treated by MNB or CB aeration were characterized by ultraviolet–visible (UV–VIS) absorption spectrum and fluorescence excitation-emission matrix (EEM). The test results showed that the oxygen utilization efficiency and volumetric oxygen transfer coefficient of MNB aeration were 10 and 50 times that of oxygen CB aeration, respectively. On the 30th day after MNB aeration, the dehydrogenase activity (DHA) of groundwater increased by 101.25%. Compared with CB aeration, the chemical oxygen demand (COD), 5-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), and ammonia nitrogen removal efficiency under MNB aeration increased by 29.72%, 13.43%, and 138.59%, respectively. With the biodegradation effect of MNB aeration, a large number of protein-like and soluble microbial by-product substances were degraded, and humic and fulvic acid-like substances were degraded to a certain level. Oxygen MNB aeration played a chemical oxidation effect while enhancing the biodegradation of groundwater, and it was an energy-efficient landfill leachate-contaminated groundwater treatment method.

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Data availability

The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to all anonymous editors and reviewers for providing comments on this manuscript. We also acknowledge the support given by the National Key Research and Development Project of China (No. 2018YFC1802300), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41877240), and the Scientific Research Foundation of Graduate School of Southeast University (YBPY2154).

Funding

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Project of China (No. 2018YFC1802300), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41877240), and the Scientific Research Foundation of Graduate School of Southeast University (YBPY2154).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Urban Underground Engineering and Environmental Safety, Southeast University, Nanjing, 211189, Jiangsu Province, China

    Mei Bai, Zhibin Liu & Zhu Liu

  2. Key Laboratory of Soft Soils and Geoenvironmental Engineering of Ministry of Education, Zhejiang University, Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, 310058, China

    Liangtong Zhan

  3. Cecep Dadi (Hangzhou) Environmental Remediation Co., Ltd., Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, 310020, China

    Zhanhuang Fan

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  1. Mei Bai
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Contributions

Mei Bai: conceptualization, data curation, writing – original draft. Zhibin Liu: conceptualization, writing – review and editing, supervision, funding acquisition. Liangtong Zhan: funding acquisition, project administration. Zhu Liu: data curation. Zhanhuang Fan: funding acquisition, project administration.

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Correspondence to Zhibin Liu.

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Bai, M., Liu, Z., Zhan, L. et al. A comparative study of removal efficiency of organic contaminant in landfill leachate-contaminated groundwater under micro-nano-bubble and common bubble aeration. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 87534–87544 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-21805-7

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