ABSTRACT
Toxic and hazardous compounds can originate from landfill leachates as a result of the soluble components of solid and liquid wastes being leached into surface and groundwater. Often these landfill leaches are comparable to complex industrial waste streams which contain both toxic organic and inorganic contaminants. Cross flow filtration processes including microfiltration (MF), ultrafiltration (UF) and reverse osmosis (RO) have been applied to the treatment of a wide variety of industrial waste water streams. Microfiltration experiments were conducted using samples of leachate collected from a landfill site in Southern Ontario. The test equipment consisted of a membrane test unit for one half inch diameter tubular membranes, a 13 gallon process tank, a recirculation pump, interconnecting piping and controls for maintaining the desired operating temperature, pressure and flows. Four different chemical precipitation treatment methods were used to precipitate the metals and other contaminants from the raw leachate water.
