A Recent Progress in the Leachate Pretreatment Methods Coupled with Anaerobic Digestion for Enhanced Biogas Production: Feasibility, Trends, and Techno-Economic Evaluation

Landfill leachate (LFL) treatment is a severe challenge due to its highly viscous nature and various complex pollutants. Leachate comprises various toxic pollutants, including inorganic macro/nano components, xenobiotics, dissolved organic matter, heavy metals, and microorganisms responsible for severe environmental pollution. Various treatment procedures are available to achieve better effluent quality levels; however, most of these treatments are nondestructive, so pollutants are merely transported from one phase to another, resulting in secondary contamination. Anaerobic digestion is a promising bioconversion technology for treating leachate while producing renewable, cleaner energy. Because of its high toxicity and low biodegradability, biological approaches necessitate employing other techniques to complement and support the primary process. In this regard, pretreatment technologies have recently attracted researchers’ interest in addressing leachate treatment concerns through anaerobic digestion. This review summarizes various LFL pretreatment methods, such as electrochemical, ultrasonic, alkaline, coagulation, nanofiltration, air stripping, adsorption, and photocatalysis, before the anaerobic digestion of leachate. The pretreatment could assist in converting biogas (carbon dioxide to methane) and residual volatile fatty acids to valuable chemicals and fuels and even straight to power generation. However, the selection of pretreatment is a vital step. The techno-economic analysis also suggested the high economic feasibility of integrated-anaerobic digestion. Therefore, with the incorporation of pretreatment and anaerobic digestion, the process could have high economic viability attributed to bioenergy production and cost savings through sustainable leachate management options.