Effect of temperature on fenton oxidation of young landfill leachate: Kinetic assessment and sludge properties

Abstract

Treatment of young landfill leachate, collected from municipal solid waste site of city of Konya, was investigated by using the Fenton process. The leachate itself showed the characteristics of pH 7.25, COD 38.2 g L-1 and BOD5 22 g L-1. Ratio of BOD5 to COD with 0.58 indicates that leachate can be defined young. Fenton oxidation of landfill leachate was expressed in two-stage process, where a fast initial reaction (H2O2/Fe2+) was followed by a much slower one (H2O2/Fe3+). Overall kinetics can be described by a second-order rate equation followed by zero-order one. The kinetic studies were undertaken at the different temperatures and reaction rates increcesed by increasing temperature. The apparent kinetic constants at 303 K are k = 3.16×10-3 L g-1 min-1 and k0 = 0,171 g L-1 min-1, respectively. Fenton reagents effectively degraded the leachate organics and most of the degradation was completed within 30 minutes for all temperatures. The performance of Fenton process was not only presented as a COD removal but also expressed as the amount of generated sludge and its properties. Sludge properties were revealed with Capillary Suction Time (CST) and Sludge Volume Index (SVI). The minimum CST value was obtained at the optimum molar ratio of 4.12 mol/mol and increasing temperature resulted in a positive effect on CST values. All SVI values were significantly low which indicates that sludge itself had good settling properties. © 2012 Global NEST.