Nitrogen removal from medium-age landfill leachate via post-denitrification driven by PHAs and glycogen in a single sequencing batch reactor

An anaerobic/aerobic/anoxic (AOA) process in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) was proposed to treat typical medium-age landfill leachate without extra carbon addition. In a steady-state, the average removal efficiencies of NH4+-N, total nitrogen (TN) and COD were 99.7 ± 0.1%, 98.3 ± 0.3% and 89.8 ± 1.4%, when influent NH4+-N, TN and COD were 1025–1327 mg/L, 1346–1854 mg/L and 6430–9372 mg/L, respectively. In the anaerobic stage, dissolved organic matter was taken up partially and stored as polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) with concomitant consumption of glycogen. In the aerobic stage, PHAs was oxidized and glycogen was replenished in the bacterial cells, when TN of 75.4 mg/L was removed via simultaneous nitrification and denitrification (SND). The residual nitrate and nitrite were denitrified completely by utilizing residual PHAs and glycogen as electron donors in the anoxic phase. Denitrifying glycogen accumulating organisms (GAOs) were considered to be playing the major role in the process.