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Performance of struvite precipitation during pretreatment of raw landfill leachate and its biological validation

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Abstract

Treatment of landfill leachate is a worldwide problem at present. A pretreatment process, struvite MgNH4PO4·6H2O precipitation, was developed to treat raw landfill leachate, and its performance was biologically validated in this manuscript. During the struvite precipitation, the suitable operating pH was 9 with 97.8% NH4 +-N removal. It was found that temperature had no significant effect on the treatment efficiency of struvite precipitation, but clearly affected COD removal and BOD/COD ratio. At 40°C, NH4 +-N removal, COD removal and BOD/COD ratio were above 95, 56 and 0.70%, respectively. The X-ray diffraction analysis verified that the precipitate formed mainly was struvite and other compounds of phosphor may be formed accompanying the struvite production. In membrane bioreactor system, the average MLVSS/MLSS ratio of 0.55 characterized the operation at 24 h HRT had a surge to 0.69 during HRT of 12 h. These indicated that the struvite-pretreated leachate could provide benefits.

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported by grant from the Tai-Lake Water Specific Program of Jiangsu Province (No. BS2007125).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lab of Environmental Biotechnology, School of Environmental and Civil Engineering, Jiangnan University, Lihu Road 1800, 214122, Wuxi City, Jiangsu, China

    Li Xiu-Fen, Dolores Barnes & Chen Jian

  2. National Key Lab of Food Science and Technology, School of Biotechnology, Jiangnan University, Lihu Road 1800, 214122, Wuxi City, Jiangsu, China

    Chen Jian

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  1. Li Xiu-Fen
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  2. Dolores Barnes
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Correspondence to Li Xiu-Fen.

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Xiu-Fen, L., Barnes, D. & Jian, C. Performance of struvite precipitation during pretreatment of raw landfill leachate and its biological validation. Environ Chem Lett 9, 71–75 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10311-009-0248-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10311-009-0248-4

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