In this study, effluent from the biological treatment of wastewater from a resin-producing factory containing recalcitrant compounds was ozonated under different conditions. Afterwards, the biodegradability of the ozonated effluent was studied under anoxic conditions. The post-ozonation of the industrial effluent was performed using a wide range of ozone doses, from 1.8 to 29.5 mg L(-1)min(-1). After the biological treatment of the ozonated effluent, organic carbon and nitrogen removals from 27 to 97% and from 27 to 80%, respectively, were achieved. The effect of the contact time was studied at a constant ozone dose of 13.0+/-1.2 mg L(-1)min(-1) and contact times ranging from 30 to 180 min. In this case, organic carbon removals from 55 to 100% and organic nitrogen removals from 41 to 77% were obtained after biological treatment.

The optimization of leachate treatment was investigated as well as the configuration of a biological-ozonation process. The leachate used for the experiments was diluted to 1/5 with tap water and treated anaerobically. The anaerobic effluent and the raw leachate were treated with ozone in order to increase their biodegradability getting the minimum organic matter removal. Both were submitted to the ozonation process, applying a constant ozone dose and varying the contact time. The ozonation of raw leachate produced a decrease of COD and BOD5 concentrations as well as BOD5/COD ratios, applying an ozone dose of 38.72 mg/L·min and contact times between 15 and 60 minutes. Ozonation as a pre-treatment process to the biological system did not improve the biodegradability of the raw leachate. The anaerobic effluent from the reactor fed with leachate diluted to 1/5, was subjected to an ozone dose of 34.99 mg/L·min and applying different contact times. BODf values increased from 74.75 up to 1220 mg/L and BODf/COD ratios reached values higher than 1. Then, the application of ozone to the anaerobic effluent led to the improvement of the biodegradability of the leachate as well as the BODf/COD ratio for all the contact times used.