Final Treatment of Leachate by Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) Adsorption

There are different methods for treatment of composting leachate. Parameters dictating which method to be chosen include quantity of the leachate, required amount of treatment and economical issues. In treatment of composting leachate existence of organic matters, heavy metals, sulfates and other inappropriate material with high concentration should be considered. Adsorption by GAC is one of the appropriate methods for treatment of these kinds of leachates. In this study, after complete identification of GAC’s specifications as an adsorbent, its application in final treatment of leachate was investigated via batch reactor experiments. According to the conducted experiments in pH=8 and in presence of 200 gr /liter adsorbent, removal rate of 42% was achieved at the equilibrium time of 30 minutes. In addition, in this research, experimental data of adsorption equilibrium was compared with freundlich and langmuir isotherm models. The results indicated that equilibrium data of adsorption is highly compatible with freundlich and langmuir models. Moreover, maximum capacity of adsorption for the adsorbent, in optimized condition, was estimated to be 3 mg of pollutant per each gr of GAC.