The Experience and Development of the Treatment Technology of Municipal Solid Waste Leachate in China

This paper reviews the characteristics of leachate produced from municipal solid waste landfills, incineration plants, transfer stations, and food waste anaerobic fermentation plants. In addition, the development of the leachate treatment technology used in China is investigated. The development period of leachate treatment technology in China can be divided into five stages: the early 1990s with simple biological treatment, the mid-to-late 1990s with ammonia stripping + anaerobic + aerobic treatment, from 2000 to 2008 with a two-stage disc tube reverse osmosis (DT-RO) process, from 2008 to 2015 with an anaerobic + aerobic + advanced treatment process, and from 2015 until the present with a diversified and full quantitative process. Furthermore, under the requirements of ecological environmental protection and “dual carbon” development concepts, this paper advises the future development trend of Chinese municipal solid waste leachate, which will enact more scientific emission standards and local standards, become inevitable for the green ecology of the technical route, be more professional and intelligent for construction and operation, and diversify resource utilization of the treatment facilities process.