Applicability of Biochar as microbial carrier for biological leachate treatment

Abstract

In developing countries, most leachate from the waste dumping site is discharged without treatment into rivers and is causing the environmental pollution, due to the lack of financial and human resources. The authors have been developing the aeration devices used waste material and natural energy. This study aimed at clarifying the availability of biochar made by waste biomass as a microbial carrier of aeration pond for promoting the removal of organic pollutants in leachate. This study focuses on a corncob as a carbonization material, which is one of main food wastes in East Africa region, and the experiments for the aeration treatment of leachate from the landfill simulated lysimeter were conducted using the corncob charcoal as a microbial carrier. As a result of leachate quality analysis and bacterial count measurement in charcoal, the corncob charcoal with biofilm had a TOC removal rate of 94% after 72 hours of continuous aeration, and was found to be significantly related to the number of bacteria in the charcoal, Meaning that high removal rate of organic pollutants was brought by the accumulation of bacteria on charcoal from this result corncob charcoal was found to be useful as a microbial carrier for the leachate treatment.