Design of support means for the fixation of biofilms in anaerobic reactors for the treatment of leachate based on principles of biomimetic

The appropriate treatment of leachate is currently one of the priorities of municipalities and large cities for the proper management of solid waste landfills. Leachate management represent a risk for public health and a potentially high environmental impact due to the diverse content of pollutants. Specially in megacities, leachate treatment is extremely important due to the large amount of waste generated by the high demographic concentration. However, current technology used for leachate treatment requires improvements to reduce the pollutant load

The “Doña Juana” sanitary landfill in Bogotá (Colombia) has a physicochemical and biological leachate treatment system. To improve the biological treatment of leachate a better reactors design to minimize the organic load of the effluent discharged into water bodies once they are treated is proposed. In this case study, the efficiency of a supported bed anaerobic reactor for the treatment of Doña Juana landfill leachate has been evaluated. A new design of the support medium for biofilm fixation is proposed considering the characteristics required to increase performance, such as the porosity of the material used, its shape and its general configuration. To improve these designs biomimicry techniques have been used, seeking to imitate elements of nature to adapt them to engineering designs.

Given the versatility of different shapes and configurations that nature offers, biomimicry offers great opportunities to adapt them to functional designs, systems, processes and natural elements. In this work the fundamental bases of this discipline will be considered in the design of the support medium for anaerobic biofilms in the reactor for the treatment of leachate, so as to improve the fixation of the microorganisms responsible for the degradation of organic matter in the proposed medium.