leachate treatment titulo
- Leachate contains two contaminants which cause major pollution of rivers and groundwaters:
- - Ammonia - very low concentrations will kill fish.
- - Dissolved organic compounds measured as Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) - these reduce the dissolved oxygen levels and destroy all aquatic organisms.
- - Other pollutants found in leachate are:
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- - Pesticides
- - Metals
- - Suspended solids
- - Dissolved methane
Viridian Colombia provides leachate treatment plants designed to reduce concentrations to safe levels of these pollutants for discharging to rivers or sewers.
- Several types of treatment are used and the exact design of a treatment plant will depend on many factors including:
- - Volume of leachate.
- - Strength of leachate - primarily ammonia concentration.
- - Discharge Consent limits.
- - Power availability and cost.
- - Footprint available.
- - Load-bearing strength of ground.
- - Availability of waste heat
Viridian Colombia offers a wide range of options and will consider all the relevant factors for each site and propose the most cost-effective solution for achieving the objectives.
For almost 100% of cases Aerobic Biodegradation is by far the most cost-effective process for removal of ammonia and additionally reduces COD, pesticides, metals and suspended solids and removes dissolved methane and odours.
Therefore virtually all the leachate treatment plants proposed by Viridian Colombia will be based on aerobic biodegradation. Other processes may also be used to supplement Aerobic Biodegradation including:
- Denitrification - for removal of nitrate
- Physico-Chemical Treatment (PCT) - for removal of metals
- Activated carbon adsorption - for removal of pesticides
- Settlement, clarification, filtration etc. - for removal of suspended solids
- Nanofiltration - for removal of “hard” (or non-biodegradable) COD
- Reverse Osmosis - for removal of dissolved compounds such as chlorides
