Evaluación y optimización de la planta de tratamiento de lixiviados del relleno sanitario. Evaluación y optimización de las operaciones unitarias.

Abstract

The Romerillo Sanitary Landfill is located on the divisional border between the provinces of Pichincha and Cotopaxi and is responsible for receiving 60 tons of waste per day from the Mejía canton to manage its final disposal, in addition to treating the leachate generated. Currently, 14 l/min of leachate is generated and the treatment plant was designed to treat only 1.2 l/min, so the excess is recirculated to the temporary storage tanks and pools. The technique used for the treatment of leachate is coagulation-flocculation, which aims to destabilize the surface electrostatic charges of the contaminants for their subsequent agglutination and sedimentation. Currently the treatment is continuous, however, there is no frequency inverter that allows regulating the revolutions per minute (RPM) for both the coagulation and flocculation phases, in addition to incorporating the coagulant and flocculant at the same time. For this reason, there is a need to acquire a frequency variator and to be able to carry out a batch treatment, since the hydraulic retention time of the current process is 3 weeks for 1 m³, while if the treatment is by batches the volume of leachate treated can be increased. The ideal dose determined through jar tests was 4150 mg/l of polyaluminum chloride and 30 mg/l of anionic polymer, reflecting an efficiency of 90.83%