Biochar-assisted aerobic granulation in enhanced biological treatment of landfill leachate with municipal wastewater for sustainable resource recovery: A biorefinery approach

Authors

Abstract

The current study deals with aerobic granular technology (AGT) for the simultaneous treatment of landfill leachate and municipal wastewater in a stirred tank reactor in SBR mode with biochar-assisted granulation of sewage sludge. This study incorporated a strategy to shorten granulation time while increasing its stability for the efficient removal of pollutants. In this work, the sewage sludge-derived biochar, mesoporous in nature with surface area of 71.5 m²/g was used to assist the granulation process of the sludge in a Sequential Batch Reactor (SBR). High removal of total phosphorous (∼70 %) and nitrogen was observed along with COD removal (80 %) during the experimental study. After the treatment process, the sludge was retrieved from both reactors R1 and R2 and subjected to a hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) process to obtain bio-oil. Therefore, this study proved to be a suitable example for generations of an alternative form of bio-fuel from industrial wastes thus establishing a biorefinery approach.