Chief Technical Officer, John Zupancic and chemical engineer, Harini Pani, presented a paper entitled, “Landfill leachate volume reduction and chemical transformation with BeneVap submerged combustion treatment” at the Waste Management Association of Australia Queensland (WMAA) Conference last October. Both presented findings of chemical analyses of leachate before and after evapoconcentration within the BeneVap system.
The BeneVap submerged combustion technology not only reduces leachate volume by more than ninety percent but several significant chemical changes were noted between the leachate and concentrate. For example; over ninety eight percent of the ammonia in the leachate was lost from the solution and numerous metals were made insoluble as they combined with carbonates, phosphate and silicate.
John Zupancic
When asked about the potential for source term depletion of leachate constituents over the life of a landfill cell, Zupancic said, “We believe that in the future, we will be able to customise previous and post treatment to optimise ammonia loss and sequester metals in the BeneVap concentrate.”
Pani specialises in predicting chemical transformation of varying leachate qualities to anticipate the effects of heating and concentration during the BeneVap treatment. She performs lab bench simulations and runs computational models to estimate the effects of evapoconcentration. Currently, she’s gathering more empirical data to refine the predictive models.
John Zupancic is also Managing Director of BeneTerra with offices in Brisbane and Sheridan, WY, USA. His background in soil and water chemistry has aided in solving wastewater and land related problems for over 30 years. He holds a BSc degree from Colorado State University and an MSc from the University of Nebraska.