Assessment of Biological Treatment of Odorous Gas using a Bacterial Consortium (Bacillus and Pseudomonas) to Deodorize Landfill Leachate

Abstract

Leachate accumulation is a major concern for municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills as it causes potential harm to public health and poses a significant threat to surface water and local groundwater systems. This article presents the results of analyses on malodorous treatment at the solid waste landfill located in Casablanca, Morocco, using bio-deodorization as a pre-treatment technology. The main goal of this study is to remove odorous gases from landfill leachate. Microbial strains of Bacillus and Pseudomonas were seeded in a leachate pond to treat the odorous emissions from landfill leachate and consequently improve environmental quality and human health. After 28 days of seeding, the results showed that the addition of Bacillus and Pseudomonas greatly reduced the concentration of chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD5) and the ionic concentration of NH4+ to approximately 27.928 mg/L, 11550.3 mg/L and 1533 mg/L, respectively, with lower energy consumption, resulting in an average overall operational cost of 53.97 USD/m3. In addition, a significant reduction in total nitrogen (32.80%), nitrites (NO2–) (99.82%), nitrates (NO3–) (46.81%) and total phosphorus (49.50%) concentrations was also achieved at a post-treatment environmental pH of 8.5. These findings extend the field of application of biological deodorization and provide new insights into malodorous treatment methods.