Treatment of landfill leachate by reverse osmosis

This paper deals with an experimental study describing the treatment of landfill leachate by means of a pilot-scale reverse osmosis unit. Leachate streams with a CO parameter in the range of 0–1749 mg l−1 have been adopted. The flux rate of the permeate through the membrane decreased linearly with the COD factor. The rejection coefficient of COD was practically independent of the COD value, but was significantly affected by the applied pressure. By operating at 53 atm, COD rejection values around 98% were obtained. Finally, the effect of COD on the separation of some heavy metals was investigated. For most metals this influence was negligible. Only the rejection coefficient of Zn decreased significantly upon increasing the COD of the leachate stream.