International Journal of Scientific Research in Knowledge, 2(7), pp.

313-319, 2014
Available online at http://www.ijsrpub.com/ijsrk
ISSN: 2322-4541; 2014 IJSRPUB
http://dx.doi.org/10.12983/ijsrk-2014-p0313-0319


313
Full Length Research Paper

Treatability Study of Partially Stabilized Leachate by Composite Coagulant
(Prehydrolyzed Iron and Tapioca Flour)

Nur Shaylinda Mohd Zin
1
, Hamidi Abdul Aziz
2,*
, Mohd Nordin Adlan
2
, Azlan Ariffin
3
, Mohd Suffian Yusoff
2
,
Irvan Dahlan
4

1
Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia,
2
School of Civil Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 14300 Nibong Tebal, Penang, Malaysia
3
School of Material and Resources Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 14300 Nibong Tebal, Penang, Malaysia
4
School of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 14300 Nibong Tebal, Penang, Malaysia
*Corresponding author: cehamidi@usm.my

Received 03 May 2014; Accepted 14 June 2014

Abstracts. Treatment of leachate before discharge is crucial to ensure the safety of the environment. Application of
coagulation-flocculation in reducing pollutant from leachate was proven to be effective. However the use of chemical
coagulant will indirectly affect the health of living organisms. To reduce the affect, substitution of the chemical coagulant with
natural material can be used. Natural coagulant on leachate treatment was not as effective as chemical coagulant. However, the
benefits of natural polymer as coagulants aids had been proven previously. Combination of chemical and natural coagulant as
composite coagulant is able to simplify the process and offers many benefits. The aim of this study was to investigate the
applicability of composite coagulant made from combination of prehydrolyzed iron (PHI) and tapioca flour (TF) on partially
stabilized leachate and was evaluated through percentage removals of suspended solids (SS), colour, chemical oxygen demand
(COD) and ammonia. A series of coagulation-flocculation jar test were carried out by considering the effect of dose and pH.
Results indicated that at pH 5 and dose 0.2 g/L Fe, the percentage removals of SS, colour, COD and ammonia were 98%, 96%,
60% and 11%, respectively. The results demonstrated that PHITF can be a potential coagulant for the treatment of partially
stabilized leachate.

Keywords: partially stabilized leachate, coagulation-flocculation, composite coagulant, prehydrolyzed iron, tapioca flour

1. INTRODUCTION

Leachate is a liquid waste coming out from the
degradation process of solid waste in landfill.
Leachate is considered as highly polluted liquid that
can potentially affect the quality of environment and
human health. Therefore, treatment of leachate before
discharged is crucial for the safety of living creatures
now and in the future. Leachate is produced during the
decomposition process of solid waste. During this
process, solid waste substances (dissolved and
suspended materials) and moisture content leached
into the precipitated water (water from external
source) and produced leachate (Tchobanoglous at al.,
1993; Howard et al., 1985). Typical characteristics of
leachate are shown in Table 1.
Generally, treatment of leachate involved
biological, chemical and physical method. However
suitability of the treatment method is depending on the
quality of leachate (refer Table 2). Partially stabilized
leachate is considered as intermediate leachate that is
in the transition phase of acidogenic into
methanegonic degradation process of solid waste.
Basically, for this type of leachate the viable treatment
option are activated carbon, reverse osmosis and
coagulation-flocculation. Coagulation-flocculation
was rate as a fairly good option (refer Table 2).
However, the effectiveness of the process is
dependent on the characteristics of the partially
stabilized leachate. If the partially stabilized is near to
the stabilized leachate condition, than the performance
of coagulation-flocculation will be better.
Coagulation-flocculation is the process of adding
coagulant into a liquid to promote agglomeration of
too small objects (0.001-1 micronmeter size range of
colloid) so it can be easily settled and removed
(Masters, 1998). The performance of coagulation
process depends on the type of coagulant used and the
characteristics of liquid to be treated. Coagulant is
divided into natural (ie: starch, molingaoleifera, aloe
vera, guar gum and chitosan) and chemical (ie:
aluminium chloride, ferric chloride, polyaluminium
Zin et al.
Treatability Study of Partially Stabilized Leachate by Composite Coagulant (Prehydrolyzed Iron and Tapioca Flour)
314
chloride and ferrous sulfate) coagulant. Usually the
performance of chemical coagulant is much better
than organic coagulant. However, chemical coagulant
is costly. Furthermore, the effect of the chemical
coagulant to human health is the main issue of
concern. With all this considerations, the search for
low cost, effective and environmentally safe coagulant
is very much in need.
To reduce the cost and health effect, the amount of
chemical used must be reduced. However, by
reducing the amount, the removal performance will be
low. Thus, addition of coagulant aid is needed to help
in maintaining the performance with lower dose of
chemical coagulant. However, its usage is restricted
due to the cost factor. Therefore, this initiates the
quest for a substitute coagulant aid that is safe for
health and economical.
To reduce the use of chemical coagulant, natural
coagulant can be seen as the best alternative. Natural
coagulant is an environmentally friendly material
which would not affect the health of humans and other
living organisms. Based on numerous studies of
primary coagulant originated from plant material such
as cactus oputia, and moringa oleifera, they are only
able to moderately reduce pollutant in leachate. Each
material used has its benefit and drawback (Mayubi
and Brima, 2004; Yin 2010).

Table 1: Characteristics of leachate (Source: Bhalla et al., 2012)
Parameter Young Intermediate Old
Age (years) <5 5-10.0 >10
pH 6.5 6.5-7.5 >7.5
COD (mg/L) >10 000 4000-10000 <4000
BOD5/COD >0.3 0.1-0.3 <0.1

Organic compounds 80% VFA
*


5-30% VFA+ humic
acid and fulvic acid
Humic and fulvic
acid

Heavy metals

Low-medium Low Low

Biodegradability Important Medium Low

*
volatile fatty acid

Table 2: Treatment efficiency of leachate (Source: Amokrane et al., 1997)
Treatment method Treatment efficiency

Biodegradable Intermediate Stabilized
Biological treatment Good Fair Poor
Chemical oxidation Fair-poor Fair Fair
Chemical precipitation Fair-poor Fair Poor
Activated carbon Fair-poor Good-fair Good
Coagulation-flocculation Fair-poor Good-fair Good
Reverse osmosis Fair-poor Good Good

To date, researchers are still focusing in finding the
optimal condition of sole coagulant, developing new
sole coagulant, the best combination of coagulant aid
and the best natural coagulant. There is recent interest
in developing composite coagulant as enhancement of
coagulant abilities. Composite coagulant is made by
combining two types of coagulant (organic or
inorganic) as one reagent by premixing the coagulant
chemically and dosing as single coagulant in the
treatment system. This is opposed to the conventional
system whereby primary coagulant and coagulant aid
are dosed separately. On the other hand by using
composite coagulant the dosing operation will be
more convenient as it reduces the cost and simplify
the process (Gao et al., 2008).
Most study on composite coagulant combines two
chemical coagulant or chemical coagulant+synthethic
polymer together. To date, too little attention has been
made in combining natural coagulant with chemical
coagulant as a composite coagulant. Its application on
leachate treatment has not been well established. This
study aimed to examine potential application of a
combined composite coagulant, namely pre-
hydrolyzed iron (PHI) and tapioca starch flour (TF),
used as a composite coagulant in removing suspended
solid, colour, ammonia and COD from partially
stabilized landfill leachate under the influence of pH
and dose.
PHI was made by partially neutralizing the ferric
chloride at the target basicity ratios. Even though
International Journal of Scientific Research in Knowledge, 2(7), pp. 313-319, 2014
315
there are advantages offered by PHI, its inabilities to
aggregate as much as the organic polymer hindered its
application to become a perfect coagulant (Moussas
and Zouboulis, 2009). Thus by combining PHI with
natural polymer, improvement in the aggregation
process is expected. Natural coagulant is the best to be
combined with PHI due to its longer molecular chain
and weakly charged density. For this, study tapioca
flour was selected as the natural coagulant. Tapioca
flour is a starch based coagulant that has longer
polymer chain with branch-like structure that is able
to improve the coagulation process. Furthermore,
tapioca flour is abundantly available in Malaysia at
reasonable cost.

2. MATERIALS AND METHODS

Samples of leachate were collected from Matang
landfill site (MLS) located in Taiping, Perak,
Malaysia. The area of MLS is 12 ha and is more than
15 years old. Every day, MLS received 300 tons of
solid waste from area around Matang and Taiping.
The treatment process of leachate in MLS is an
improved anaerobic system. Sampling and analytical
procedures were conducted in accordance with the
APHA standard method (APHA, 2005). The basic
characteristics of MLS leachate is summarized in
Table 3. MLS is categorized as partially stabilized
leachate, thus coagulation-flocculation methods are
expected to work well.

Table 3: Characteristics of raw MLS leachate
No. Parameters Value
Range Average
#

1 Temperature (
0
C) 27.3-37.4 30.3
2 pH 7.9-8.5 7.6
3 BOD5 (mg/L) 53-280 146
4 COD (mg/L) 470-1260 828
5 Suspended solids (mg/L) 194-1620 407
6 Ammonia-N (mg/L) 311-1620 868
7 Ferum (mg/L) 0-5.4 3.1
8 Turbidity(NTU) 15-289 112
9 BOD/COD 0.08-0.39 0.18
10 True colour (ptCo) 885-6680 3199
11 DO (mg/L) 0.1-3.03 0.69
*6 samples taken from June-December 2013

Table 4: Constant jar test factors
Factors Value
Rapid mixing (rpm) 200
Rapid mixing duration (minutes) 4
Slow mixing (rpm) 30
Slow mixing duration (minutes) 15
Settling time (minutes) 30

The PHI used in this study was prepared based on
method described by Lei et al. (2009). All reagents
used in this research were of analytical grade. A
solution of 0.1 mol/L FeCl
3
was prepared and freshly
made to prevent aging. The PHI was made by slowly
adding 0.5 mol/L NaOH into a 0.1 mol/L FeCl
3
at a
flow rate of 0.0038 mL/s using an autotitrator with
vigorous stirring speed at room temperature. The
volume of NaOH added to the FeCl
3
solution was
determined depending on the target basicity (basicity
= 0.1). Then, the PHI mixture was allowed to age at
room temperature for 24 h before being composite
with TF.
PHITF was prepared by injecting TF heated
solution into 2.85 g/L Fe stock solution of PHI at 0.3
ml/min under magnetic stirring (700-800 rpm) at 50
o
C temperature (using water bath) to prevent
formation of insoluble product. The amount of TF
Zin et al.
Treatability Study of Partially Stabilized Leachate by Composite Coagulant (Prehydrolyzed Iron and Tapioca Flour)
316
injected was expressed as ratio of TF/Fe (TF/Fe=0.7).
TF solution was prepared by dissolving the required
amount of TF in ultra purer water and heated at its
gelatinized temperature. Finally, the composite
coagulant was allowed to age for 24 hours in room
temperature and then stored in a refrigerator. The
preparation of composite coagulant was based on
Moussas and Zouboulis (2009) study.
Coagulation tests were done using a jar test
apparatus (SW6 Stuart, Bibby Scientific Limited,
UK). For this study, only pH and dose were
considered in jar test process. While the factors listed
in Table 4 was kept constant. The dose of PHITF was
calculated as g/L of Fe. NaOH and HCL were used to
adjust the leachate pH. A 1 L beaker was filled with
500 mL of leachate, followed by the addition of
PHITF under rapid stirring and extended by slow
mixing. Then, the leachate was allowed to settle.
Finally, 50 mL supernatant was collected 3 cm from
the surface of the leachate for analysis of the SS,
colour, COD, and ammonia removal.
The removal percentage was calculated based on the
following formula:
Percentage removal= (Ci Cf) x 100 (1)
Ci
where Ci and Cf are the initial and final concentration
of the removal parameter.

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

The dosage efficiency of PHITF was investigated in
terms of SS, colour, COD and ammonia removal. The
pH of leachate was constant at 5. The removal trend
of SS was similar with colour and COD as PHITF
dose increased. Ammonia removal was almost
constant for all of the dosage tested. Based on the
results, SS and colour from leachate can easily be
removed by using PHITF. The effect of PHITF on
COD removal was fairly good with highest removal
recorded at 62%. By contrast, ammonia removal by
PHITF was low. As shown in Figure 1, highest
removals of SS and colour were recorded at 0.2 g/L
Fe with 97% and 94% removals, respectively. On the
other hand, the best removal for COD was recorded at
0.3 g/L Fe with 62% reduction. However at 0.2 g/L
Fe, the COD removal was slightly reduced to 58%.
As for ammonia, the highest removal was at 0.6 g/L
Fe with 17% reduction. At 0.2g/L Fe, the ammonia
removal was just 12%. Hence, the optimum dose for
PHITF was selected at 0.2 g/L Fe to reduce cost.
To further improve the coagulation process by
PHITF, the optimum pH for coagulation was
determined at wider range of pH between 3 and 12
with constant dose at 0.2 g/L Fe (optimum PHITF
dose obtained previously). The efficiency of PHITF
under the influence of pH is shown in Figure 2. It can
be noted that PHITF worked well at acidic condition.
The highest removal of SS, colour and COD were
recorded at pH 5 with 98%, 96% and 60% removals,
respectively. The highest removal of ammonia was
shown at pH 12 with 21% reduction. At pH 5, the
removal was just 11%. To avoid too alkaline
condition which requires post-treatment, pH 5 was
chosen as the optimum pH for PHITF.


Figure 1: Coagulation performance under the influence of PHITF dose.
( SS, colour, COD, ammonia)

International Journal of Scientific Research in Knowledge, 2(7), pp. 313-319, 2014
317

Figure 2: Coagulation performance under the influence of leachate pH.
( SS, colour, COD, ammonia)

Table 5: Comparison of PHITF efficiency with previous study
Coagulant Sample pH dose SS
a
colour
a
COD
a
NH
3
a
References
FeCl
3
leachate 6 0.53 g/L Fe 99 96.5 44.7 - Aziz et al., 2007
FeCl
3
leachate 7 0.95 g/L Fe 96 84 37 26 Daud et al., 2012
Alum leachate 7 3 g/L 68 78 33 14 Daud et al., 2012
Alum leachate 6 2.5 g/L 70.4 54.9 26.9 - Aziz et al., 2007
PAC
**
leachate 7.5 1.9 g/L 99 97 57 - Ghafari et al.; 2010
FeCl
3
+ DAF* leachate 4.76 0.13 g/L Fe - 93 75 41 Adlan et al., 2011
PHITF leachate 5 0.2 g/L Fe 98 96 60 11.9 This study
*Dissolved air floatation,
a
percentage,
**
Poly-aluminum chloride

A comparison of PHITF efficiency with previous
findings is elucidated in Table 5. It can be noted that
the performance of PHITF on SS, colour and COD is
higher than alum. PHITF and FeCl
3
exhibited about
similar performance in removing SS and colour.
However, the dose required by FeCl
3
was more than
PHITF (Aziz et al., 2007, Daud et al., 2008). PHITF
also recorded almost the same removals of SS, colour
and COD as the case of PAC. In terms of COD
removal, PHITF performed better than alum and
FeCl
3
. In contrast, by using FeCl
3
with DAF, the COD
removal was higher than PHITF. It can also be noted
that PHITF did not work well for ammonia as
compared to the others coagulants. It can be
concluded that except for ammonia, PHITF can work
well for all parameters (SS, colour and COD).

5. CONCLUSION

Partially stabilized leachate treatment by composite
coagulant made from PHI and TF under the effects of
dose and pH were investigated in terms of SS, colour,
COD and ammonia removals. The optimum
conditions occurred at pH 5 and 0.2 g/L Fe with SS,
colour, COD and ammonia reductions of 98%, 96%,
60% and 11%, respectively. The PHITF performance
was better or at par with conventional coagulants. It
can be concluded that PHITF has potential to be used
as alternative coagulant in the treatment of partially
stabilized leachate.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work is supported by Universiti Sains Malaysia
under RU-Team grant scheme RUT-
1001/PAWAM/854005. The authors also wish to
acknowledge Majlis Perbandaran Taiping for their
assistance during the sampling process.

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International Journal of Scientific Research in Knowledge, 2(7), pp. 313-319, 2014
319



Nur Shaylinda Mohd Zin is a PhD student at the School of Civil Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia,
MALAYSIA. Since 2004 until present, he was associated with Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia,
MALAYSIA (UTHM). She has experience working as an academician since 2004 at Faculty of Civil and
Environmental Engineering, UTHM.





Prof. Dr. Hamidi Abdul Aziz is a Professor at School of Civil Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia,
MALAYSIA (USM). He has a variety of academic and research experience involving teaching, research,
consultancy, publication and management. His fields of specialization are water supply engineering,
wastewater engineering and solid waste management.





Prof. Ir. Dr. Mohd Nordin Adlan is a Professor at School of Civil Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia,
MALAYSIA (USM). He has a variety of academic and research experience involving teaching, research,
consultancy, publication and management. His fields of specialization are solid waste and leachate treatment
technology, solid waste management and Water and wastewater treatment.






Prof. Dr. Azlan Ariffin is a Professor at School of Materials and Mineral Resources Engineering, Universiti
Sains Malaysia, MALAYSIA (USM). He has a variety of academic and research experience involving
teaching, research, consultancy, publication and management. His fields of specialization are Plastic
Technology Blending and Modification of Polymer.





Associate Prof. Dr. Mohd Suffian Yusuff is a Associate Professor at School Civil Engineering, Universiti
Sains Malaysia, MALAYSIA (USM). He has a variety of academic and research experience involving
teaching, research, consultancy, publication and management. His fields of specialization are solid waste
management and leachate treatment.





Dr. Irvan Dahlan is a senior lecturer at School of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia,
MALAYSIA (USM). He has a variety of academic and research experience involving teaching, research,
consultancy, publication and management. His fields of specialization are air pollution engineering,
wastewater treatment and enzyme/environmental catalysis