Treatment of mature landfill leachate using hybrid processes of hydrogen peroxide and adsorption in an activated carbon fixed bed column.

In this study, the treatment of mature landfill leachate is evaluated by oxidation with hydrogen peroxide (HO) combined with adsorption in a granular activated carbon (GAC) fixed bed column to determinate the increase in the biodegradability index, the reduction of chemical oxygen demand (COD) as well as the increase in the useful life of the GAC bed. The sample leachate from Loma de Los Cocos Landfill (Cartagena de Indias, Colombia) has a very low biodegradability ratio ranging from 0.034 to 0.