| Abstrakt: |
Municipal solid waste (MSW) management is a significant challenge in Jordan, particularly regarding landfill leachate (LL). Al-Ghabawi landfill, the country's largest, lacks proper leachate treatment, with the current practice being limited to evaporation in open ponds, an environmentally unacceptable method. This study dealt with the coagulation process for treating LL produced from Al-Ghabawi landfills by using alum and moringa seeds as coagulants. The results showed that the optimum pH for the coagulation process was 5.5. The optimal dosages were 800 mg/L for moringa oleifera and 400 mg/L for alum (high dose), and 80 mg/L for moringa oleifera and 40 mg/L for alum (low dose). The use of moringa oleifera and alum together yielded the best removal rates for turbidity (48.9%), total suspended solids (TSS) (41.21%), total dissolved solids (TDS) (17.9%), and Mn (73.7%). Pb and Cr, however, exhibited lower removal rates, with the best achieved by using moringa seeds and alum together (42.8% and 46.58%, respectively). Notably, moringa oleifera seeds alone as a coagulant outperformed alum in removing COD (91.57%) and BOD (85.71%), indicating that moringa oleifera is a more effective option for increasing the biodegradability of the leachate, as evidenced by the increased BOD5/COD ratios, from 0.5159 to 0.875 and 1.206 for high and low doses, respectively. These findings suggest that the coagulation process can be significantly improved by utilizing moringa oleifera seeds, a natural and sustainable coagulant, in combination with alum for the treatment of Al-Ghabawi LL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
