Potential of KMnO4 and H2O2 in treating semi-aerobic landfill leachate

Abstract

Treatment of recalcitrant landfill leachate was carried out using hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and potassium permanganate (KMnO4). The treatment performance was reported in terms of colour, chemical oxygen demand (COD) and ammoniacal nitrogen (NH4-N). The effect of oxidant dosages and pH was determined and optimum conditions were determined considering the removal of parameters of interest. The optimum dosage of both oxidants was similar in terms of COD removal; however, H2O2 gave better removal (42 %) and similar results were obtained for NH4-N (24 %). KMnO4 proved better in terms of colour with a reduction of 74 % compared to 43 % by hydrogen peroxide at pH 7. Acidic conditions (pH 2–5) proved conducive towards the removal of all parameters with the exception of COD removal by KMnO4 that exhibited a low removal at pH 5 and increased with increasing pH. The COD reduction at pH 3 was ~38 % for KMnO4 and H2O2, whereas the reduction in NH4-N was 22 and 28 % for KMnO4 and H2O2, respectively. The COD and NH4-N removal performance of H2O2 was better compared with KMnO4; however, consistently higher colour removal was obtained for KMnO4.