International Journal of Environmental Science and Development

Abstract—One of the important concerns in Tehran municipal landfill is the production of leachate and its potential for water resources pollution. This paper investigates the removal of heavy metals from landfill leachate by using a combined system of a membrane Bioreactor (MBR) together with reverse osmosis. The leachate was collected from a landfill in the vicinity of Tehran nearly 1 year old, The data indicated that the system provided high removals of Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Pb, Cd and Cr equal to 98%, 79%, 85%, 85%, 87%, 82%, and 73% respectively and heavy metal concentration in MBR effluent is a function of aeration ratio and bioaccumulation. Among the metals investigated in the present study It can be concluded that the extracellular adsorption, is the principal removal process of the metals, compared to other removal mechanisms such as bioaccumulation or intracellular accumulation, Cu, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cd, Zn, and Fe, respectively, have higher capability of being adsorbed through biological processes by MLSS. Also, based on Freundlich Isotherm, Cr, Cd, Pb, Cu, Zn, and Fe, in turn, have the most saturation rate for every gram of MLSS and their maximum fast absorption is 0.000023, 0.0035, 0.22, 5, 6, 130 mg/g MLSS, respectively.

Index Terms—Adsorption, heavy metals, leachate, MLSS, membrane bioreactor.

The authors are with the Department of Health, Tehran Medical Sciences Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran (e-mail: rmahmoudkhani@iautmu.ac.ir, majid_bayatian@yahoo.com, khani133958@gmail.com).

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Cite: Rouhallah Mahmoudkhani, Majid Bayatian, and Mohamad Reza Khani, "Heavy Metals Adsorption by Mixed Liquid Suspended Solids (MLSS)," International Journal of Environmental Science and Development vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 193-197, 2016.