Nanofiltration Process in Landfill Leachate Treatment

Landfill leachate (LL) is extremely toxic wastewater and contains various contaminants such as inorganic salts, organic compounds, ammonia, xenobiotics, biological organisms, and heavy metals. The hybridization of conventional treatment techniques with suitable membrane processes is vital because of the enforcement of severe regulations for LL discharge. The integrated membrane processes attained a higher contaminant removal efficiency by a large volume of treated leachate and a low capital cost investment. This chapter presents the application of nanofiltration membranes accompanied by the recent improvements to the current processes for the treatment of LL. The processes are mostly divided into two categories of hybrid membrane processes together and the hybridization of NF process with other conventional techniques. It was found that single NF processes cannot reach desirable LL treatment due to high fouling, and therefore, it is essential to use an engineered combination of NF with other techniques to attain acceptable removal efficiencies.