Activated Carbon for Landfill Leachate Treatment

Landfill leachate is among the most hostile liquid streams in environmental engineering. Mature leachate carries refractory COD, humic acids that defy biodegradation, heavy metals, and emerging contaminants in a matrix that shifts with landfill age, season, and waste composition.

Biological treatment, the conventional first line, reaches its limit quickly; the remaining organics are precisely the ones that standard activated carbon struggles to capture efficiently.

The Challenge & PureStar Approach

The pain point is refractory organic persistence.

Humic and fulvic compounds, the dominant color and COD contributors in aged leachate, are large molecules that require mesopore-dominant carbon rather than the micropore-optimized grades designed for small trace contaminants. Using the wrong carbon type results in rapid color breakthrough and continued effluent non-compliance.

The PureStar Solution: Leachate grades engineered with targeted mesopore architecture for large-molecule capture.

Our high-surface-area powdered and granular carbons provide the precise pore volume distribution needed to adsorb humic color bodies and refractory organics, eliminating the premature saturation that plagues conventional products:

• Rapid-Equilibrium Powder Grades: Enable flexible batch reactor operation for plants with highly variable influent.
• Robust GAC Grades: Provide continuous treatment stability and reliable barrier protection for facilities with more consistent flows.