Tratabilidad de lixiviados sanitarios : Tratamiento de lixiviados del relleno sanitario "Romerillos" del cantón Mejía, provincia de Pichincha, mediante coagulación-floculación con cloruro férrico.

Abstract

Leachate is one of the environmental problems that derive from the accumulation of solid waste stored in landfills or open-air dumps. This pollutant is an unpleasant liquid with a pungent odor, which is generated mainly by the percolation of rainwater through the waste in the process of degradation. In general, they have a high contaminant load and represent a risk to the environment and people's health, if they are not properly treated prior to their final destination. The objective of this curricular integration work was to carry out the coagulation - flocculation treatment of the leachate from the "Romerillos" landfill, Mejía canton, Pichincha province, in order to determine the degree of effectiveness of the use of FeCl3 as an alternative synthetic inorganic coagulant to Al2(SO4)3 which is also used in wastewater treatment. It began with the bibliographic review to know the state of the art on the subject. Subsequently, three technical visits to the "Romerillos" sanitary landfill were carried out in order to learn about the raw leachate collection process, its treatment at the plant and collect leachate samples. Next, the samples were transported to the LDIA laboratory of the National Polytechnic School and the physical, chemical and biological analyzes were carried out according to the procedures established in the Standard Methods and HACH manuals for the analysis of water and wastewater. For the treatment of the leachate, solutions of FeCl3 and PAC at 5% and 4%, respectively, were made. Subsequently, in the jar test equipment, the treatability of the leachate was developed to determine the optimal doses of FeCl3 and PAC, the optimal coagulation pH, the fast mixing speed, the gradient and optimal flocculation time, and the sedimentation speed. The results obtained in the test, gave as a result, optimal doses of 1800 mg/l of FeCl3 and 1200 mg/l of PAC, an optimal coagulation pH of 6.5, optimal fast mixing speed of 150 rpm for 60 seconds; a gradient and optimal flocculation time of 50 rpm and 20 minutes, respectively; and a settling time of 20 minutes. The parameters mentioned above, presented an efficiency of waer turbidity removal higher than 80% and in the other quality parameters analyzed, on average over 75%.