Treatment of landfill leachate by reverse osmosis

This paper deals with an experimental study describing the treatment of lan dfill leachate by means of a pilot-scale reverse osmosis unit. Leachate str eams 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 independe nt of the COD value, but was significantly affected by the applied pressure . By operating at 53 aim; COD rejection values around 98% were obtained. Fi nally, the effect of COD on th: separation of some heavy metals was investi gated. For most metals this influence was negligible. Only the rejection co efficient of Zn decreased significantly upon increasing the COD of the leac hate stream. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.