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Characteristics of landfill leachates and alternatives for their treatment: A review

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Abstract

Sanitary landfilling is the most common way to eliminate solid urban wastes. An important problem associated to landfills is the production of leachates. The factors determining the characteristics of leachates from solid urban waste landfills are reviewed together with the reported compositions of leachates from various countries and origins. New data obtained from two landfills of different age in the same area are reported. The advantages and disadvantages of the various existing alternatives for solving the leachates problem are discussed under the items: (1) Leachate Channeling (Combined Treatment with domestic sewage, Recycling and Lagooning with recycling). (2) Biological Processing (Aerobic and Anaerobic). (3) Chemical/Physical Treatment (Chemical Precipitation, Chemical Oxidation, Adsorption onto activated carbon, Reverse osmosis, and Stripping of NH3). The performance at several operational conditions of the most important methods is reviewed and summarized in several tables. From all this information a table designed to aid the choice of solutions for each particular case is presented.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Santiago de Compostela, E-15706, Spain

    J. M. Lema, R. Mendez & R. Blazquez

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  1. J. M. Lema
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  2. R. Mendez
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  3. R. Blazquez
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Lema, J.M., Mendez, R. & Blazquez, R. Characteristics of landfill leachates and alternatives for their treatment: A review. Water Air Soil Pollut 40, 223–250 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00163730

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00163730

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