Nitrogen removal from landfill leachate

Abstract

Population growth, urbanization, and industrialization are the significant factors responsible for generating massive waste worldwide. The generation of solid waste leads to an adverse impact on environment security as well as human health. Solid waste management is required to minimize environmental drawbacks. Sanitary landfill is considered an ultimate disposal method, commonly adopted for solid waste management. However, landfill gas and leachate generation have gained social and environmental concerns. The production of leachate from the percolation of rainfall into a landfill is one of the major concerns. To meet discharge permit criteria, reducing the ammonia concentration in landfill leachate is usually necessary. Among the contaminants found in landfill leachate is ammonia-nitrogen (NH3- N), which is of particular concern due to its high concentration. It is typically essential to treat landfill leachate to eliminate ammonia nitrogen (free ammonia and dissolved organic nitrogen) because large quantities are known to have detrimental effects on waterways and the leachate treatment process. This chapter deals with the technologies adopted for nitrogen removal from landfill leachate. Biological, physical, and chemical treatments can reduce nitrogen content. However, choosing any of these treatment methods is subjective. Therefore, this chapter discusses the treatment methods for nitrogen removal and their drawbacks and suggests that treatment efficiencies, system cost, and environmental impacts are considered while proposing a suitable treatment method or combination of treatment methods for nitrogen removal from landfill leachate. � 2023 The Authors. All rights reserved.