Journals Proceedings

Abstract

This work aims in developing a technique to be used at large scale for treating leachates which are produced by compaction of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) of Mohammedia city (Morocco). In order to avoid environment pollution, the MSW effluents are usually stored in basins before their treatment. However, sometimes these effluents are dumped directly in the landfill without any treatment, causing, hence, environmental problems. In the present work, anaerobic biological treatment, followed by aeration, were both used, to achieve removal of pollution load of fresh leachates from the MSW. Thus, high organic load effluents were treated by anaerobic process during 43 days, followed by intensive injection of 3.5 L of air per minute in 10 liters of leachate over a period of 30 days. The resulting characteristics of the treated leachate such as the COD, the BOD5 and the turbidity, were found to depend on the importance of the pollution load, and on the nature of the inorganic constituents initially present in the leachate. The anaerobic-aerobic treatments used in this work have lead to the purification of the leachate with reductions of 75% of COD; 66% of BOD5 and 60% of turbidity, from their respective initial concentrations of 58 880 mg/L, 24 000 mg/L and 2036 NTU. Finally, the anaerobic combined with aerobic treatment was found to be very efficient in the treatment of MSW leachate, enhancing hence its biodegradability.