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Air gap membrane distillation for treating landfill
leachate membrane concentrate
Authors： DU Yongliang, LI Zhengyu, LIU Bo, SONG Yang, HE Shaolin, ZHANG Guangyuan, YUAN Hongying
Units： 1. Tianjin Key Laboratory of Aquatic Science and Technology, School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Tianjin Chengjian University, Tianjin 300384, China; 2. International Joint Research Center for Infrastructure Protection and Green Biotechnology in the Environment，Tianjin 300384, China; 3. PetroChina Planning & Engineering Institute, Beijing 100089, China
KeyWords： landfill leachate； air gap membrane distillation； deep concentration； permeate flux； concentration factor
ClassificationCode：TQ319
year,volume(issue):pagination： 2025,45(6):126-137

Abstract：
A large amount of landfill leachate membrane concentrate (LLMC) is generated during the treatment of landfill leachate using reverse osmosis technology, which is characterized by high salt concentration, poor treatability and high environmental risk. In this study, air gap membrane distillation (AGMD) was used to concentrate LLMC extracted from a domestic landfill plant, to investigate the performance of AGMD and the retention capacity of the pollutants in the deep concentration process. The results showed that increasing the feed temperature significantly enhanced the performance of AGMD, and when the feed temperature was increased from 40 ℃ to 60 ℃, the mass flux and gained output ratio of AGMD with 0.45 μm hydrophobic membrane increased by 112.04% and 33.33%, respectively. Membrane module structure and membrane material also had a significant impact on AGMD performance, with the best performance when using a hydrophobic membranes with 1 mm gap width and 0.45 μm pore size. During the LLMC deep concentration treatment process, the performance of AGMD was stable, and its rejection rate of all pollutants except ammonia nitrogen reached more than 99%, and there was no significant membrane contamination and membrane wetting when the concentration factor was 5. It can be seen that AGMD technology can be applied in the field of LLMC deep concentration treatment. 
 

Funds：
国家重点研发计划“政府间国际创新合作”专项项目（2019YFE0122400）； 中国石油天然气股份有限公司规划总院管理决策支持项目[集团公司取用水管理技术支持（JH2025-010）]

AuthorIntro：
杜永亮（1985-），男，山西吕梁人，博士，讲师，研究方向为污水污泥处理、固废资源化处置.

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