Removal of COD, BOD and Color from Municipal Solid Waste Leachate using Silica and Iron nano particles - A Comparative Study

Application of nano particle in the treatment of municipal solid waste leachate is of recent interest. In this paper, the effectiveness of silica nano particles synthesized from blast furnace slag and iron nano particle synthesized from chemicals was studied for the removal of organic pollutants and color. The synthesized nano particles were characterized using SEM, TEM, EDX and FTIR analysis. Batch experiments were conducted to remove the BOD, COD and color from Aged landfill leachate (ALL) and leachate from the composting yard (CYL).Influencing parameters like pH, contact time, nano particle dosage and Hydrogen peroxide concentration were studied. The maximum removal was achieved at the pH of 6 for both the nano particle, contact time 90 minutes for silica nano particle and 120 minutes for iron nano particle, silica nano particle dose as 0.4g/50 ml, iron nano particle dose as 0.3g/50ml and hydrogen peroxide concentration was found to be 3M and 4M for silica and iron nano particles respectively. The removal efficiency in CYL and ALL using silica nano particle was obtained as 87.15%, 72.72%, 83.15% and 82.5%, 62.5%, 77.34% for color, BOD and COD respectively. Similarly for iron nano particle, the removal efficiency was found to be 60.3%, 65%, 67.43% and 57.06%, 57.27%, 67% for the removal of color, BOD and COD in CYL and ALL, respectively.