Ammoniacal Nitrogen and COD Removal from Stabilized Landfill
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Desalination and Water Treatment 192 (2020) 111–117 www.deswater.com July doi: 10.5004/dwt.2020.25470 Ammoniacal nitrogen and COD removal from stabilized landfill leachate using granular activated carbon and green mussel (Perna viridis) shell powder as a composite adsorbent Zawawi Dauda,*, Amir Dethoa,b, Mohd Arif Roslic, Mahmoud Hijab Abubakard, Kamran Ahmed Samoe, Nur Faizan Mohammad Raisa, Azhar Abdul Halimf, Husnul Azan Tajaruding aFaculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, emails: [email protected] (Z. Daud), [email protected] (A. Detho), [email protected] (N.F. Mohammad Rais) bEnergy and Environment Engineering Department, Quaid-e-Awam University Engineering, Science and Technology Nawabshah, Sindh, Pakistan cFaculty of Engineering Technology, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, email: [email protected] (M.A. Rosli) dDepartment of Civil Engineering, Modibbo Adama University of Technology Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria, email: [email protected] (M.H. Abubakar) eElectrical Engineering Department, Quaid-e-Awam University College of Engineering, Science & Technology Larkana, Pakistan, email: [email protected] (K.A. Samo) fSchool of Environmental and Natural Resources Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, email: [email protected] (A.A. Halim) gSchool of Industrial Technologi, Universiti Sains Malaysia, email: [email protected] (H.A. Tajarudin) Received 13 September 2019; Accepted 9 January 2020 abstract Leachate is a liquid that is produced when water percolates through solid waste and contain dis- solved or suspended material from various dissolved materials and bio-decomposition process. This study describes the finding of ammoniacal nitrogen and chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal partially replacing the amount of activated carbon. Activated carbon is well known as a good adsorbent for the removal of COD but the cost is relatively very high. However green mussel shell is the most abundant source in the world. Due to its abundance, green mussel is one of the low- cost materials. The combination of both materials is believed to produce inexpensive and suitable composite to treat the leachate. The batch experiment results indicate that the leachate concentration of ammoniacal nitrogen was (148 mg L–1) and that of COD (308 mg L–1). The optimum conditions for removal of ammoniacal nitrogen and COD were determined at 120 min with 200 rpm at pH 7. The optimum ratio of activated carbon and green mussel shell is 2.5:1.5. The values of removal per- centage of NH3–N, and COD are 63% and 83%, respectively. The availability of low-cost adsorbent material like green mussel shells in the composite has helped to reduce the treatment cost, along with enhancing the adsorption capacity and is environment friendly. The Langmuir isotherm adsorption 2 2 model showed a better fit with strong correlation R = 0.9962 for COD and R = 0.9918 for NH3–N, respectively, which means that the adsorption of leachate on granular activated carbon-green mussel shell powder, in this study, is homogeneous with the monolayer. Keywords: Activated carbon; Green mussel shell; Composite; Ammoniacal nitrogen; Chemical oxygen demand (COD); Low cost adsorbent * Corresponding author. 1944-3994/1944-3986 © 2020 Desalination Publications. All rights reserved. 112 Z. Daud et al. / Desalination and Water Treatment 192 (2020) 111–117 choice in the present and future, particularly for low and 1. Introduction middle-income countries. Among the developing Asian Currently, the high population density is increasing the countries like Malaysia, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, and growth of commercial and industrial development in most Thailand), 70% to 90% of waste is disposed-off in the landfill of the countries. The increasing growth of population as well as shown in Fig. 1 [6]. as the increase in the rate of municipal solid waste (MSW) Worldwide various research studies have been carried generation. MSW is produced from various sources such out on the treatment of landfill leachate which utilized as residencies, industries, commercial areas, institutions, various types of treatment technologies like individual construction and demolition, municipal services, treatment and combined such as, physicochemical and combined plants and sites, agriculture, and biomedical activities; each physicochemical and biological. However, consider these of these is heterogeneous [1]. This huge amount of MSW methods probably incur very high operational costs and generation implies serious issues regarding public health most importantly are unsuitable for small scale industries. and the environment. Irregular dumping of MSW affects These also produce unsatisfactory results. Landfill leach- all stakeholders, especially the public. However, improper ate treatment is very expensive, complicated, and most dumping of urban waste affects the land and creates seri- importantly requires numerous processes. A few technolo- ous environmental and public health problems. Especially, gies, for example, reverse osmosis, chemical precipitation, domestic waste, which is organic in nature, poses a seri- membrane filtration, air stripping, oxidation, and adsorp- ous risk, since it makes the condition ideal to the survival tion are useful in the treatment of landfill leachate. Among and growth of microbial pathogens [2]. these technologies, physicochemical treatment is one of Groundwater is one of the real sources of water supply the most important and useful ways for the treatment of for residential and industrialization purposes. However, stabilized leachate via adsorption [10]. All these different its quality is undermined due to the manner in which the treatment strategies have been used in water treatment tech- waste is disposed. Groundwater is safer and reliable to use nologies, for example, bioremediation [11], electrochemical than the surface water, as it is less exposed to various pollut- degradation [12], cation exchange membranes [13], Fenton ants. However, groundwater quality is exposed to dangers chemical oxidation [14], constructed wetland [15] and because of the contamination caused by various sources. photocatalysis [16–18]. One of them is pollution by leachate through landfills; in Adsorption by activated carbon has gained considerable most urban areas landfills are the final destination of most attention as it has a greater surface area, high adsorption of the generated waste. Landfill leachate is defined as the capacity, and better thermal stability [19] and it is effective liquid that permeated through waste; it emerged contain- for adsorption of non-polar contaminants [20]. Additionally, ing heavy minerals and suspended materials from various with the presence of carbon–oxygen surface groups, polar dissolved materials and bio-decomposition processes [3]. compounds, and metal cations can also be absorbed. The most important part of urbanization planning is to With these applications, it is widely used as an adsorbent classify the area for the disposal of solid waste. However, in the process of water and air purification [21]. serious health hazards and environmental problems can Using the activated cow dung ash (ACA) as well as arise because of the location of landfills and methods of dis- cow dung ash (CA) to treat the wastewater for the removal posal. The great concern related to landfill’s environmental of chemical oxygen demand (COD) using the batch mode. impacts is connected to its effects on surface and ground- According to the batch mode result in the removal of COD water, soil, odor emissions, air, and issues with respect using ACA has managed to get rid of 79% whereas using to the transportation of solid waste [4]. of CA were remove 66% at the same working range [22]. A huge amount of waste is generated and is dumped at However, the use of activated carbon is not feasible different landfill sites. These wastes originate from residen- in developing countries due to its high production cost tial, commercial, and various other activities. These landfill and the need for the regenerative process of re-activating sites produce bad odor if; the waste is not properly stored activated carbon columns [23]. There are various treat- and treated. It can contaminate the air as well as surface ment processes available ion exchange and are considered and groundwater alongside polluting the soil and the sub- soil. The landfill is generally used for solid waste disposal; the use of landfills will always play a vital role in waste disposal up to 95% of solid waste is currently disposed-off in landfills [5]. Malaysia is a south-east country, where landfilling is significantly important and the waste management stan- dard system needs improvement. It consists of 13 states and 3 federal areas, with a total area of 329,700 km2. Kuala Lumpur, officially the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur and commonly known as KL, is the national capital and the largest city in Malaysia. Being one of the fastest-growing economies in Asia, the generation rate of MSW increased from 292 kg/capita, in 2000, to 511 kg/capita in 2025 [1]. At present, landfilling methods play a vital role in disposing-off MSW around the world, significantly the best Fig. 1. Percentage of municipal waste treated [7–9]. Z. Daud et al. / Desalination and Water Treatment 192 (2020) 111–117 113 cost-effective if low-cost ion exchangers, such as zeolites, further changes that might occur in its physicochemical are used [24]. and biological properties until the experimental analy- In addition,