Landfill Leachate Treatment Over Nitritation/Denitritation in an Activated Sludge Sequencing Batch Reactor

It was studied the landfill leachate biological treatment by nitritation/in an activated sludge sequencing batch reactor. Treatment cycles were formed by an anoxic and an aerobic phase. The conditions for nitrogen oxidation with sustained nitrite accumulation at the end of the aerobic stage and the use of leachate organic matter as carbon source for denitrifying organism in the anoxic stage was determined. The removal efficiencies of N-NO2-at the end of the anoxic phase (1 hour) ranged between 8 and 31% indicating low availability of easily biodegradable organic matter in the leachate. No imbalance was observed over the nitritation process at the end of the aerobic phase (48 hours) of treatment cycles and the specific rates ranged from 0,043 to 0,154 Kg.N-NH3/Kg.SSV day, demonstrating the applicability of the simplified nitritation/denitritation in the treatment of effluents with low C/N.