Ultrasound as a pre-oxidation for biological landfill leachate treatment.

In this study, the effects of low energy ultrasound irradiation on landfill leachate treatment by means of sequencing bath reactor were investigated. The aim of this work was to estimate the influence of leachate irradiation time on aerobic treatment efficiency. The sonification of the leachate was carried out in static conditions using the disintegrator UD-20. The field frequency of 22 kHz (the power output equals to 180 W) and amplitude of 12 microm was applied. The sonification time was changed in the range of 30-140 s. It was found that ultrasonic pretreatment enhances the subsequent aerobic digestion resulting in a better degradation of landfill leachate. The sonification of raw leachate leads to enhancement of COD and ammonia removal as compare to experiment without ultrasound.