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Published on: March 22, 2024
Integrating landfill bioreactors, partial nitritation and anammox process for methane recovery and nitrogen removal
Faqian Sun1, Xiaomei Su1, Tingting Kang1
1Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
Abstract:
A new process consisting of a landfill bioreactor, partial-nitritation (PN) and the anammox process has been developed for landfill leachate treatment. In this study, the landfill bioreactor exhibited excellent performance in methane-rich biogas recovery, with a specific biogas yield of 0.47 L gas g(-1) COD and methane percentages of 53-76%. PN was achieved in the aerobic reactor by high free ammonia (101 ± 83 mg NH3 L(-1)) inhibition for nitrite-oxidizing bacteria, and the desired PN effluent composition (effluent nitrite: ammonium ratio of 1.1 ± 0.3) was controlled by adjusting the alkalinity concentration per unit of ammonium oxidized to approximately 14.3 mg CaCO3 mg(-1) N in the influent. The startup of anammox process was successfully achieved with a membrane bioreactor in 160 d, and a maximum nitrogen removal rate of 216 mg N L(-1) d(-1) was attained for real landfill leachate treatment. The quantitative polymerase chain reaction results confirmed that the cell-specific anammox activity was approximately 68-95 fmol N cell(-1) d(-1), which finally led to the stable operation of the system.
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