Ammonia removal from young landfill leachate by magnesium ammonium phosphate precipitation and air stripping

Leachate from sanitary landfills is a strong wastewater in terms of organic matter and ammonia. Organic matter can be reduced by anaerobic plus aerobi c treatment; however, ammonia reduction by nitrification often poses proble ms due to inhibition. In this study, ammonia removal by physical chemical t reatment from young leachate and anaerobically treated young landfill leach ate was experimentally investigated, Magnesium ammonium phosphate precipita tion (MAP) and ammonia stripping at pH 12 provided ammonia removals over 90 and 85% respectively. Up to 80% COD removal was obtained with MAP precipit ation of raw leachate.