Biological wastewater treatment of landfill leachate
Reliable treatment of leachate from household waste landfill reduces operating costs
Riederberg, Austria – How efficient plant technology can save operating costs in the long term. The successful conversion of a leachate treatment plant from osmosis technology to a pollutant-reducing BIOMEMBRAT® process
The Riederberg landfill awarded the contract for the construction and operation of the leachate treatment plant for indirect discharge as part of a public tender by the state of Tyrol. With the help of the BIOMEMBRAT® plus high-performance membrane bioreactor, the landfill has reduced its operating costs by 50 % and saved a total of approx. 6 million euros during the renovation period. The leachate treatment plant has a capacity of 24,000 m³ of leachate per year. It reduces the COD load of the wastewater by up to 97% and reduces the NH₄-N content by up to 99%.
Solution approach and concept description
The biological process for leachate treatment is integrated into an innovative overall plant concept including a lightweight hall and existing leachate tanks. In the main stream, the leachate is treated using the BIOMEMBRAT ® plus process. After this treatment step, the leachate is chemically and physically purified to the required indirect discharge limits. The environmentally neutral salts are thus discharged from the system, resulting in only small quantities of residual material for external disposal. The organic parameters and nitrogen concentrations are effectively reduced in this two-stage system. The smart combination of biological treatment with downstream low-energy ultrafiltration and nanofiltration as well as activated carbon adsorption results in significantly lower operating costs than the reverse osmosis system previously caused.
Scope of delivery
Performance
| Components | Inlet | Output | Performance |
| CSB | 15,000 mg/l | < 300 mg/l | < 97 % |
| NH₄-N | 3,500 mg/l | < 200 mg/l | < 99 % |
| AOX | 2 mg/l | < 0.5 mg/l | < 75 % |
Initial situation of the project
In the past, a two-stage osmosis plant was operated at the Riederberg landfill site to purify the leachate. After the concentrates had been returned to the landfill for several years, the plant management decided to dispose of the concentrates externally to continue ensuring the proper operation of the plant. The costs of external disposal, the constant reduction in yield and the simultaneous increase in operating and maintenance costs prompted the province of Tyrol to rethink the solution concept for sustainable wastewater treatment.
Impressions of the plant
Commissioning
The wastewater treatment plant was successfully commissioned back in 2012 and has reliably complied with the regulatory purification performance and prescribed limit values to this day. WEHRLE has always been responsible for ongoing monitoring and maintenance as well as the necessary individual measures such as service and renovation work. The purification process at the Riederberg site not only cleans leachate sustainably, it has also eliminates unpleasant odors for local residents. Thanks to the almost complete elimination of pollutants and the avoidance of external concentrate disposal, operating costs have been reduced by approximately 35%.
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