Abstract

The use of Permeable Reactive Barriers as a material for the removal of heavy metals from the leachates of the Sanitary Landfills has been verified for various materials, the Silica Sand from the coasts of the municipality of Alvarado Veracruz in Mexico have the characteristics of size and composition Required to be used for this purpose, samples of leachate were collected from the Sanitary Landfill of the City of Veracruz and the concentrations of Ni, Cr+6 and Zn were determined were respectively 0.0818, 0.186 and 0.224 mg/l, three columns were built of acrylic and were filled with 20, 30 and 40 cm of washed and dried Silica Sand, treated and stabilized leachate was passed through the porous medium at a flow of 1.7 ml/s, taking samples at 40.75, 115 , 165 and 235 seconds for each column and the efficiency for the removal of these heavy metals was measured and a significant reduction of these pollutants was found, ranging from 76 to 93%. for Nickel, from 44 to 81 % in the case of hexavalent Chromium and from 65 to 92% for Zinc for a maximum time of 235 seconds, which indicates that this material can be used in the remediation of leachate.