TDL Energie GmBH received a another order to supply a containerised Reverse Osmosis plant for
landfill leachate treatment to England.
The three-stage plant, with a treatment capacity of 150 m³/d, will be installed and commissioned at a
landfill site in Staffordshire in July 2026.
The treatment of landfill leachate using Reverse Osmosis technology produces two water streams.
Depending on the composition of the raw leachate, approximately 80% clean water (= permeate) and
approximately 20% wastewater (= concentrate) are produced.
The permeate is discharged into a receiving watercourse, i.e. released directly into the environment.
The concentrate is disposed of externally.
The regional EPA has stipulated very strict discharge conditions for the permeate. The discharge limit for
ammonium (NH₄-N) is <5 mg/l.
To comply with this required discharge limit, a second treatment stage for the permeate is installed downstream
of the Reverse Osmosis plant.
This second treatment stage is an ion exchanger designed to selectively remove ammonium.
The ion exchanger is designed with redundancy to ensure continuous treatment.
Reverse osmosis is a leachate treatment technology that has been tried and tested for many years, designed to
safely treat heavily contaminated landfill leachate in accordance with the increasingly stringent requirements set
by the regulatory authorities.
It can also be integrated as an additional treatment stage in older leachate treatment plants that do not meet the
new future requirements, such as older biological treatment plants (e.g. SBR).
Reverse Osmosis technology is already considered one of the so-called ‘best available technologies’ (BAT) for leachate
treatment; these are currently being discussed at European level as part of the Seville Process and must be defined
in the BAT guidance documents for the EU Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) by 2030.