Synthetic leachate

The management of leachates from controlled landfills represents a major environmental and health issue. In this study a synthetic leachate was developed from the characteristics of the real leachate from the Al Hoceima controlled landfill to enable a controlled assessment of its properties. Characterization of the real leachate revealed high variability in its parameters including an average COD of 19435.5 mg/L a conductivity of 32933 µS/cm and high concentrations of ammonium (3184.5 mg/L) nitrite (383 mg/L) nitrate (1298.5 mg/L) and orthophosphate (143 mg/L).The synthetic leachate produced showed a final COD of 19200 mg/L an adjusted conductivity of 13000 µS/cm and concentrations of ammonium (2159 mg/L) nitrite (535.7 mg/L) and nitrate (1330 mg/L) in line with those of the real leachate. These results underline the suitability of this approach for faithfully reproducing the physico-chemical properties of real leachates. This work thus provides a solid basis for future experiments under controlled conditions paving the way for research into treatment strategies adapted to local specificities.