Operational variables of technological interest in the application of the Fenton process to leachate treatment

TRAID, H.D.; VERA, M.L.; SILVA, C.G.; DWOJAK, A.N.; LÓPEZ, I.E.

Buenos Aires

Congreso; 11th World Congress of Chemical Engineering; 2023

Asociación Argentina de Ingenieros Químicos

By a combination of physical, chemical, and microbial processes, a municipal solid waste (MSW) generates a leachate where the pollutants contained in the solid are transferred to the liquid phase. In a sanitary landfill, the MSW final disposal site, the characteristics of the leachate depends on the MSW composition, landfilling technology, weather, and leachate age. The variability and heterogeneity of the leachates render a conventional treatment sequence insufficient to achieve the decontamination degree required by the regulations; thus, additional stages are necessary to complete the purification process. In the Fenton process, a widely applied Advanced Oxidation Process in leachate treatment, the H2O2 is activated by Fe2+ to generate very reactive hydroxyl radicals (HO•). The influence of the main variables of the Fenton process, such as temperature, reagent concentration, reagent ratios, pH, etc., on the efficiency of the leachate treatment has been widely reported. The present work explores the influence of other variables of high technological interest: magnetic stirring (1 vs. 24 h), settling (supernatant vs. homogenized treated leachate), antifoam addition (no addition vs. 1%/v), acidifying agent (H2SO4 vs. H3PO4), reagent quality (reagent vs. industrial grade) and H2O2 addition methodology (all volume at once vs. pulses of 10% of the total volume per min).