ANALYSIS OF LEACHATE FROM A NON-SANITARY LANDFILL AND ASSESSMENT OF REMOVAL EFFICIENCY OF CAFFEINE USING MATERIAL AND SUBSTANCE FLOW ANALYSIS

Abstract

Leachate from a non-sanitary municipal solid waste landfill (L) was collected to perform physico-chemical (temperature, pH value, conductivity, COD, BOD5, NH4+-N, SO42-, Ptot, orthophosphates, turbidity, suspended solids) and microbiological (number of aerobic heterotrophs, total number of coliform bacteria, total number of faecal coliform bacteria, number of intestinal enterococci) analyses. Obtained results indicate that landfill L was in methanogenic phase of waste decomposition and included the presence of two species of microorganisms: Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumonia. Additionally, a semi-quantitative screening analysis of collected samples was performed using QP2010-Ultra GC-MS. Sixteen organic compounds were identified, of which the following five belonged to the group of pharmaceuticals: caffeine, 22-tricosenoic acid, 4-methylthiomorpholine-1,1-dioxide, 2,6,10,14-hexadecatetraen-1-ol,3,7,11,15-tetramethyl-,acetate,(E,E,E)-, and 1,2-bis(trimethylsilyl)benzene. The software package STAN was used to conduct material and substance flow analysis. Scenario modeling was performed to assess the removal efficiency of selected technologies in terms of reducing the concentration of caffeine because of its well-known negative effects on humans and the environment. Technologies for leachate treatment, which were observed within the Scenario 1, included the hybrid wetland system, membrane bioreactor (MBR) and reverse osmosis (RO). The modeling results indicate the high removal efficiency of caffeine concentration (99.99%).