The aim of the present work was to provide a viable and active way to remove COD and colour from landfill leachate treated by adopting combined process of electrocoagulation and solar photo Fenton process. Coagulating agents such as metal hydroxides are created by the electrolysis process through self-sacrificial electrodes. Aluminium and iron dissolves at the anode and hydrogen gas are generated at the cathode when aluminium and iron electrodes are utilised. The contaminants interact with the coagulating agent to generate enormous organic flocs. The leachate was obtained from a landfill in Madurai and then it was characterised in terms of its major predominant pollutants. In this study, the electrocoagulation process was used in conjunction with the solar photo Fenton process to treat the leachate under ideal conditions of pH = 7, NaCl = 2 g/L, voltage = 4 V, Al & Fe electrodes and inter electrode distance = 3 cm with a COD and colour removal effectiveness of 75% and 76%, respectively. Furthermore, the effluent from the electrocoagulation process was treated using a solar photo Fenton process at pH = 3, H2O2 = 10 g/L and Fe2+ = 1 g/L with COD and colour reduction effectiveness of 90% and 91%, respectively. In this combination of treatment systems, leachate biodegradability increased from 0.35 to 0.73, favouring the biological oxidation process in conventional treatment plants. This research demonstrates that employing this paired electrocoagulation-solar photo Fenton to treat landfill leachate can achieve consistent treatment effects with high removal efficiencies, and that it is an acceptable treatment technique for landfill leachate.
Keywords: Biodegradability; electrocoagulation(EC); landfill leachate; solar photo Fenton process (SPF).