Advanced nitrogen removal from landfill leachate via Anammox system based on Sequencing Biofilm Batch Reactor (SBBR): Effective protection of biofilm

High levels of organics negatively affect Anammox for treating landfill leachate. To enhance the ability of Anammox to survive against adverse environments, a lab-scale two-stage Anammox system using a Sequencing Biofilm Batch Reactor was applied to treat mature landfill leachate under 35 degrees C. Over 107 days, with influent total nitrogen (TN) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentrations of 3000 +/- 100 and 3000 +/- 100 mg/L, effluent TN was below 20 mg/L. For extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) of Anammox, slime-EPS and loosely-bound-EPS of floccules were both higher than biofilm, while tight-bound-EPS of biofilm was significantly higher, contributing to biofilm formation. Quantitative microbial analysis showed that as influent COD increased, Anammox gene ratios of biofilm increased from 1.34% to 13.28%; the gene ratios of floccule first increased, then decreased to 3.88%. This indicated that Anammox and heterotrophic bacteria could coexist because of the biofilm, leading to stable nitrogen removal performance, even when organics were present. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd.