Anaerobic biodegradability of leachate from MSW intermediate landfill

Abstract

Anaerobic digestion has been used for decades to treat leachate from municipal solid waste landfills. Due to the characteristics of this kind of effluent, the biodegradability results have not been as satisfactory as could be hoped. Consequently, this area has long been a focus of study. This paper contributes to knowledge of the characteristics of biodegradability of this kind of waste effluent, through application to a real case. Biodegradation performance was studied in depth using a range of physicochemical parameters and the amount of methane produced by various volumetric ratios of substrate:inoculum between 2:50 and 50:50 at 35 ºC and atmospheric pressure by using anaerobic batch tests in 500 mL bottles. It has been observed an optimal situation for the ratios between 16:50 and 24:50 ratios with values of biodegradability COT 45% and 35% in COD. For smaller proportions it has detected the completion of the lack of readily biodegradable substrate. For higher proportions it is considered that the ammoniacal nitrogen has had an inhibiting effect on the anaerobic process.