Abstract
Landfill leachate contributes to groundwater pollution. The Permeable Reactive Barrier (PRB) is a sustainable in-situ method to remediate groundwater. Finding cost-effective and efficient reactive materials is a key problem with PRBs. Hence, the present study aimed to assess the applicability of two composite reactive media beds derived from several waste materials (building waste, sludge, sea sand, iron particles, bagasse, saw dust, bio char, fly ash and coconut coir pith) for PRBs to treat groundwater contaminated by landfill leachate. The study comprised two identical laboratory-scale PRB reactors: an experimental reactor and a control reactor. Each reactor included two reactive media beds in series. In the experimental reactor, one of the two beds was filled with a composite reactive media derived from waste materials with high particle densities, while the other was filled with waste materials of low particle densities. In contrast, both the beds of the control reactor were filled with Granular Activated Carbon (GAC). The experimental PRB demonstrated removal rates of 97.08 ± 0.11% (Pb), 65.01 ± 2.14% (Mn), 55.03 ± 1.06% (Fe) and 78.34 ± 1.58% (COD). The control reactor achieved removal rates of 99.26 ± 0.08% (Pb), 94.46 ± 1.13% (Mn), 80.23 ± 0.93%(Mn) and 98.83 ± 0.14% (COD). The shear strength reductions were 19%, 27%, and 11% for the high-density, low-density, and GAC beds, respectively. The associated reductions in hydraulic conductivity were 24%, 12%, and 35%. The waste-derived reactive media possess multiple properties sourced from different materials and can address the removal of multiple contaminants simultaneously, comparable to GAC.
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The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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The authors express their sincere gratitude to the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Ruhuna, for their invaluable support in providing the necessary laboratories, services, and research grant to successfully conduct this research. Additionally, the authors would like to acknowledge the assistance of Ms. D.A.M. Nimal Shanthi, the senior technical officer, and Ms. Sachinthani Warnasooriya, the chemist, in conducting the laboratory analyses.
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W.K.C.N.D. and W.T.H.J. wrote the main manuscript text and W.K.C.N.D. and W.T.H.J. prepared all the figures and tables. All authors reviewed the manuscript.
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Jayawardane, W.T.H., Dayanthi, W.K.C.N. Waste-derived permeable reactive barrier to treat heavy metals and organic matter in groundwater affected by landfill leachate. Environ Earth Sci 83, 260 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-024-11516-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-024-11516-2