Abstract
A two-step electrochemical process including electrooxidation (EO) and electrocoagulation (EC) was proposed for the tertiary treatment of bio-treated landfill leachate (BTLL). The operating conditions of sole EO and EC technology were optimized via batch tests. Batch tests indicate that EO displayed superior removal efficiency towards color (89%) and UV254 (64%) under optimal experimental conditions. EC with the electrode combinations Fe–Fe-Fe–Fe (four plates, anode–cathode-anode–cathode) performed better than the other electrode combinations (Fe-Al–Fe-Al, Al–Fe-Al–Fe, Al-Al-Al-Al) and showed excellent removal efficiency towards COD (60%) and color (85%). In continuous-flow tests of 13 h, compared to sequential EC-EO process, the sequential EO-EC process was more effective than the sequential EC-EO process in reducing organic matters (COD, TOC) and residual chlorine. The sequential EO-EC process could remove 50% COD, 55% TOC, 72% UV254, and 96% color. The average concentration of residual chlorine in the final effluent of EO-EC process (147 mg/L) was significantly lower than that of EC-EO process (463 mg/L). UV–vis and GC–MS analyses indicate that the BTLL mainly contained humic acid and fulvic acid-like substances with unsaturated bonds. Conjugated unsaturated organics could be degraded into organic of small molecular weight after the sequential EO-EC process. EEM spectroscopic analysis revealed that soluble microbial byproducts became the predominant organics in the final effluent. This work verifies the synergism between EO and EC and provides some insights into the removal and degradation performance of organic substances in BTLL during the sequential EO-EC treatment.
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All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this article and its supplementary material.
Abbreviations
- BDD:
-
Boron-doped diamond
- BTLL:
-
Bio-treated landfill leachate
- CI:
-
Current intensity
- COD:
-
Chemical oxygen demand
- DO:
-
Dissolved oxygen
- EC:
-
Electrocoagulation
- ED:
-
Electrode distance
- EEM:
-
Excitation-emission matrix
- EO:
-
Electrochemical oxidation
- FA:
-
Fulvic acid
- GC-MS:
-
Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry
- HA:
-
Humic acid
- MBRs:
-
Membrane bioreactors
- MP-P:
-
Monopolar parallel
- NF:
-
Nanofiltration
- RO:
-
Reverse osmosis
- TOC:
-
Total organic carbon
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Acknowledgements
Thanks are also expressed to Ph.D. Qigui Niu from the School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shandong University, for his help in terms of the EEM spectroscopic analyses.
Funding
This study was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (No. ZR2019MEE046, No. ZR2020QE227) and the Top Discipline in Materials Science of Shandong Province.
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Jianbo Lu: conceptualization, reviewing, and funding acquisition.
Lei Wang: investigation and writing—original draft preparation.
Guifang Si: investigation.
Bin Lu: software and methodology.
Xintong Zhang: reviewing and editing and supervision.
Jie Li: software and data curation.
Wei Zhang: validation.
Zhenhua Wang: investigation and visualization.
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Highlights
• A two-step electrochemical process including EO and EC was proposed for BTLL treatment.
• Sequential EO-EC process was found to outperform EC-EO process via continuous-flow tests.
• Residual chlorine of EO-EC effluent was significantly reduced.
• Conjugated unsaturated organics was degraded into small molecular organics by EO-EC process.
• Soluble microbial byproducts were the predominant organics in the effluent of EO-EC process.
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Lu, J., Wang, L., Si, G. et al. Tertiary treatment of bio-treated landfill leachate by a two-step electrochemical process including electrooxidation and electrocoagulation: a bench-scale trial. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 32600–32613 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-24028-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-24028-y