Abstract

Background: Leachate contains a large amount of pollutants that make it very complicated and expensive for treatment. Hence, leachatetreatmentgenerallyrequiresvariouscombinedprocessesthatmustbedonecarefully. Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the sequencing batch reactor (SBR) performance in treatment of composting plantleachate. Methods: Inthisexperimentalstudy,anaerobicbiologicalSBRwith2literscapacitywasusedfortreatmentof leachatefromcomposting plant of Isfahan, Iran. The organic loading rate (OLR) increased from 0.25 to 6.3 g COD/L.d in 11 runs during 280 days. To determine the reactor performance, COD, SCOD, rbCOD, BOD5, TKN, and TP were measured in accordance with standard methods. Finally,thedatawereanalyzedusingExcel2007software. Results: In this study, the highest removal efficiency in SBR was obtained at 0.75 to 1.5 g COD/L.d loading rate. The maximum removalratesforCOD,SCOD,rbCOD,andBOD5 were92.45,93.33,99.8,and96,respectively. Theaverageremovalefficienciesfortotal nitrogenandphosphoruswere73.6and66.5,respectively. Conclusions:Accordingtotheresults,SBRperformanceintheremovaloforganicmatter,nitrogen,andphosphorusatlowloading ratesissatisfactory,whiletheremovalefficiencydecreasedbyincreasingloadingrateanddecreasingretentiontime.