Valorization of compost obtained from the mechanical and biological treatment of municipal solid waste: catalysts for wet peroxide oxidation of landfill leachates
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abstract
Since humanity started living in communities and towns, the generation of solid
waste has largely increased and, in 2017, each European citizen generated 480 kg of
municipal solid waste (MSW). The main concern with MSW is its management and
final destination since in many cases MSW is just thrown in landfills. In mechanical
and biological plants, MSW is first sorted into discarded, recyclable, and organic
waste streams. This organic fraction goes to the biological treatment stage,
generating biogas, and as by-products, leachate, and compost are obtained, the
compost being mainly used as an agriculture fertilizer. However, the amount of
compost produced is higher than its demand, resulting in an excess that is currently
accumulated in landfills. This work deals with the valorization of compost to produce
hydrochairs, and pyrochars, through hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) and pyrolysis,
respectively, with suitable properties as catalysts for the catalytic wet peroxide
oxidation of the landfill leachate. Up to seven catalysts were synthesized under
several conditions, 2 from HTC and 5 from pyrolysis. The catalysts were characterized
to determine the ash content and elemental analysis. All materials were assessed in
the degradation of H 2 O 2 , leading to its complete degradation after 2 h of reaction
time. Some selected catalysts were further tested in the CWPO of the landfill leachate (TOC = 27 g L -1 , COD = 60 g L -1 , 38.8 mS/cm, and 5 g L -1 of chloride ions) under
the following operating conditions: C Catalyst = 1.8 g L -1 ; T = 80 ºC; C H2O2 = 85.7 g
L -1 and pH from 3.0 to 7.3.
This work was financially supported by project “VALORCOMP - Valorización de
compost y otros desechos procedentes de la fracción orgánica de los residuos
municipales”, with reference 0119_VALORCOMP_2_P, through FEDER under
Program INTERREG; Base Funding - UIDB/50020/2020 of the Associate Laboratory
LSRE-LCM - funded by national funds through FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC); CIMO
(UIDB/00690/2020) through FEDER under Program PT2020, and national funding by
FCT, Foundation for Science and Technology, through the individual research grant
SFRH/BD/143224/2019 of Fernanda Fontana Roman.
