Thesis Title « REMOVAL OF AMMONIACAL NITROGEN FROM LANDFILL LEACHATE BY ADSORPTION ON ACTIVATED ZEOLITE »

Friday  4 October 2019, at: 13:00, Venue: Hall Κ3.A17

Examination Committee

• Associate Professor Petros Gikas (advisor)
• Professor Nicolas Kalogerakis
• Professor Konstantinos Komnitsas

Abstract

Sanitary landfill is a widely applied disposal method of solid waste into the ground and is applied to special areas called Sanitary Landfill Sites. This special method is considered as a controlled and organized treatment process of solid waste. However, produced landfill leachates -the liquid by-products from the decomposition of organic solid waste, the compression of waste and the rain penetration during the process of sanitary landfill - contain significant polluting load and if not properly treated, they can contaminate the surface water and the groundwater. Therefore, the landfill leachate should have been efficiently treated before their disposal to a recipient. One promising treatment process is the adsorption on zeolite (natural or synthetic mineral, which is frequently used as adsorbent), in order to achieve high removal rates of the hazardous constituents of landfill leachates.

The current study was focused on the removal of ammoniacal nitrogen (ΝΗ3-Ν) (with initial concentration at 2100 mg/L) from landfill leachate Pera Galinon, Heraklion, by adsorption on activated natural zeolite, in order to determine the most efficient treatment method. In the experiments which were carried out, chemical and thermal activated clinoptilolite was used, one of the most suitable natural zeolites for ΝΗ3-Ν adsorption. The treatment of 100mL raw leachate with 40g of activated zeolite concluded to more encouraging results, compared with the rest treatments of this study. The achieved ΝΗ3-Ν removal of 100mL raw leachate with adsorptions with 40g (single treatment), 20g and 20g (double successive treatment) and 13.33g, 13.33g and 13.33g (triple successive treatment) activated zeolite, was 83.74%, 93.61% and 93.85% respectively. According to the above mentioned removal rates the two successive adsorptions are preferable, as they have similar performance with the three successive adsorptions, while they are less complicated from a construction point of view. The adsorption on activated clinoptilolite is a promising treatment procedure, as it achieves a high removal rate of ΝΗ3-Ν without the use of specialized equipment, as it contains natural materials (zeolite, sea salt), which are abundant in nature. This method of treatment could be applied to on-board sewage treatment plants.