Landfill wastewater treatment at “alte Schanze” in Paderborn

What is special about landfill wastewater treatment? 

Landfill wastewater treatment is an important sector for ecosystem protection. The “alte Schanze” is a landfill site in the district of Paderborn, Germany. The landfill is in the open air so rain falls on the landfill area. To prevent dissolved substances from entering the groundwater, the bottom of the facility is sealed. Thus, the landfill captures the leachate and this is collected for discharge to the in-house wastewater treatment plant for cleaning. Landfill wastewater treatment is designed to discharge treated wastewater to municipal wastewater treatment plants or it to the natural environment. In this case, the wastewater contains a particularly high concentration of COD, BOD, phosphorus, filterable substances and ammonium nitrate. 

The challenges of the project 

The reconstruction of the plant was the focus of this project. In the process, the ClearFox® team was allowed to temporarily shut down the old plant and install all components.  The plant uses a level sensor to determine the amount of wastewater to be treated and then adjusts its output, making the plant operate more efficiently. The ClearFox® service team installed it, to meet the customers request. 

Which process technologies are suitable for landfill wastewater treatment? 

PPU Umwelttechnik GmbH is a specialist in landfill wastewater treatment. To reach the best solution the ClearFox® team installed two DAF (dissolved air flotation) modules with polymer tanks, five fixed bed biological reactors in 20-foot containers, a denitrification stage, and a secondary clarifier. The DAF modules remove solids and convert dissolved solids to undissolved solids and remove them also.

Subsequently, the fixed-bed reactors ensure the decomposition of carbon and the nitrification of the wastewater. The operator has the option to denitrify directly or returning the wastewater to perform upstream denitrification. As nitrogen is present in the wastewater in different forms, the plant has the option of using both processes to remove all nitrogen variations. Secondary sludge is then separated in a lamella clarifier. 

The ClearFox® team implemented a touch panel control system with visual display to manage the landfill wastewater treatment system. To achieve this, the service specialists programmed their own control system, which they individually adapted to the system. That enables the customer to control the plant more precisely and maintain an overview of all the steps in the process.