Using different materials as a permeable reactive barrier for remediation of groundwater contaminated with landfill’s leachate

The present study investigates the utilization of the waterworks sludge by-product that generated from water supply treatment plant for the remediation of simulated groundwater contaminated with leachate spilled from the sanitary landfill by permeable reactive barrier (PRB) technology. Batch sorption experiments were conducted for describing the interaction between the acetogenic phase (pH=5.5±0.1) of leachate contaminated with cadmium (Cd(II)), ammonia nitrogen (NH3–N) or dissolved organic matter (COD) and waterworks sludge. Also, conventional sorbents such as the activated carbon and amberlite ion-exchange resin were tested to evaluate their ability in compar-ison with waterworks sludge in the remediation process. Results proved that the Langmuir model describes well the sorption data with maximum sorption capacities of 5.634, 14.908 and 3.938mg/g for Cd(II) onto sludge, NH3–N onto resin and COD onto activated carbon, respectively. The batch and column tests signified that the sludge, resin, and carbon can be used for removing Cd(II), NH3–N, and COD, respectively. The multi-layered bed of sorbents under consideration has a remarkable ability in the remediation of a leachate contaminated with Cd(II), NH3–N, and COD. Finally, the Yan model is more representative than Thomas and Belter models for characterization of the contaminants propagation in the column packed with single sorbent.Validerad;2020;Nivå 2;2020-03-11 (cisjan)