Advanced landfill leachate treatment using a two-stage UASB-SBR system at low temperature

A two-stage upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) and sequencing batch reactor (SBR) system was introduced to treat landfill leachate for advanced removal of COD and nitrogen at low temperature. In order to improve the total nitrogen (TN) removal efficiency and to reduce the COD requirement for denitrification, the raw leachate with recycled SBR nitrification supernatant was pumped into the first-stage UASB (UASB1) to achieve simultaneous denitrification and methanogenesis. The results showed that UASB1 played an important role in COD removal and UASB2 and SBR further enhanced the nutrient removal efficiency. When the organic loading rates of UASB1, UASB2 and SBR were 11.95, 1.63 and 1.29 kg COD/(m~3·day), respectively, the total COD removal efficiency of the whole system reached 96.7%. The SBR acted as the real undertaker for NH_4~+-N removal due to aerobic nitrification. The system obtained about 99.7% of NH_4~+-N removal efficiency at relatively low temperature (14.9-10.9℃). More than 98.3% TN was removed through complete denitrification in UASB1 and SBR. In addition, temperature had a significant effect on the rates of nitrification and denitrification rather than the removal of TN and NH4+-N once the complete nitrification and denitrification were achieved.