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The Application of Membrane Bioreactors (MBR) for the Removal of Organic Matter, Nutrients, and Heavy Metals from Landfill Leachate

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Handbook of Environmental Materials Management

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Abstract

Generally, the disposal of waste to landfills is a serious environmental concern. The leachate produced in landfill sites may infiltrate into the soil and contaminate surface and/or groundwater. Because of the high concentration of pollutants, landfill leachate (LFL) is very difficult to treat using conventional biological processes. Since the turn of the century, the application of membrane bioreactors (MBRs) has proven to be a promising alternative to conventional treatment methods.

MBRs are essentially composed of two main sections, the biological unit or bioreactor responsible for the biodegradation of the waste compounds and the membrane module for the separation of the treated water from biosolids/microorganisms. MBR systems commonly use ultrafiltration (UF) or microfiltration (MF) membranes in hollow fiber, plate and frame, flat sheet, or tubular configuration.

The microorganisms are of importance because the capacity of MBR systems to eliminate organic matter depends on the biological activity in the active sludge. Also, pretreatment and posttreatment can improve MBR efficiency.

In the following chapter, a review of the studies pertaining to landfill leachate treatment with membrane bioreactors has been provided.

The results show that excellent biological oxygen demand (BOD5) and ammonia removals of 90% or higher are achievable with a much shorter hydraulic residence time (HRT) and much larger organic loading rate (OLR) in comparison to conventional biological systems. MBR systems also allow for excellent chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal (higher than 75% and in some cases even exceeding 90%), even with old LFL under optimized conditions. Heavy metal concentrations could be reduced by more than 99%, and for NH4-N removal, percentages of more than 97% have been reported. MBRs have also been effectively used to remove micropollutants. Furthermore, recent developments such as anaerobic MBR and PAC-amended (powdered activated carbon-amended) MBR have shown great potential in LFL treatment.

However, one of the most important problems with the application of MBR for landfill leachate treatment is the occurrence of biofouling on the membrane surface, leading to diminished flux and the requirement of cleaning processes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gas Turbine Power Plant Division, Monenco Iran Company, Tehran, Iran

    Susan Hayeri Yazdi

  2. Department of Civil Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran

    Ali Vosoogh

  3. Department of Civil Engineering, K. N. Toosi University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

    Alireza Bazargan

Authors
  1. Susan Hayeri Yazdi
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  2. Ali Vosoogh
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  3. Alireza Bazargan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alireza Bazargan .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry and Environmental Science, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, USA

    Chaudhery Mustansar Hussain

Section Editor information

  1. Dept. of Chemistry and EVSC, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, USA

    Chaudhery Mustansar Hussain

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Hayeri Yazdi, S., Vosoogh, A., Bazargan, A. (2019). The Application of Membrane Bioreactors (MBR) for the Removal of Organic Matter, Nutrients, and Heavy Metals from Landfill Leachate. In: Hussain, C. (eds) Handbook of Environmental Materials Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73645-7_168

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