Optimization of the treatment of sanitary landfill by the ozonization catalysed by modified nanovermiculite in a rotating packed bed

Conventional processes fail to improve the treatment of landfill leachate. Thus, the use of advanced molecular ozone oxidation processes combined with Rotating Packed Bed (RPB) reactor provides greater gas diffusion to the medium in a catalytic bed with vermiculite and it is a process likely to remove organic discharge. This study aimed to increasing the ratio between biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) as well as improving color removal through a modified vermiculite-catalyzed ozonation process in an RPB reactor. The factors of rotation of the bed in the reactor, initial pH and ozone flow were analyzed through experimental design represented by the central composite design (CCD) and later optimized through the Normal Boundary Intersection (NBI) algorithm. In the optimized operational conditions: rotation of 915 rpm, pH of 5.8 and ozone flow of 3.9 L min−1, the COD and color removal were 16.5% and 40.54%, respectively. An increase in biodegradability (BOD5/COD), from 0.13 to 0.49, under optimized conditions, demonstrated the efficiency of the process as a pretreatment of landfill leachate enabling further biological treatment. [Display omitted]