* Corresponding authors. 1944-3994/1944-3986 © 2020 Desalination Publications. All rights reserved. Desalination and Water Treatment www.deswater.com doi: 10.5004/dwt.2020.25873 195 (2020) 57–63 August Modifcation of sequencing batch reactor (SBR) using novel acryl-fber (AFBC) for sanitary landfll leachate safe disposal Bakar Radhi Baker a , Radin Maya Saphira Radin Mohamed a, *, Adel Al-Gheethi a , Hamidi Abdul Aziz b,c, * a Micro-pollutant Research Centre (MPRC), Faculty of Civil Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, 86400 Parit Raja, Batu Pahat, Johor, Malaysia, Tel. +0607 456 4316; Fax: +607 453 6588; email: maya@uthm.edu.my (R.M.S. Radin Mohamed) b School of Civil Engineering, Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Nibong Tebal 14300, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia, Tel. +0607 456 4236; Fax: +607 453 6588; email: cehamidi@usm.my (H.A. Aziz) c Solid Waste Management Cluster, Science and Technology Research Centre, Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Nibong Tebal 14300, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia Received 20 September 2019; Accepted 16 March 2020 abstract A combined process of acrylic biomass carrier and activated sludge system (traditional system) was accomplished to treat sanitary landfill young leachate with a high concentration of ammoniacal nitro- gen and organic material. Stable treatment performance of an acrylic biomass carrier reactor with activated sludge traditional reactor combined with bio-fringe loaded with microorganisms (CASBF) compared to activated sludge traditional reactor (CASR) was obtained under 10 L laboratory-scale reactor as 24 h sequencing batch reactor system and 2–5 mg/L dissolved oxygen, the temperature of (20°C–25°C), pH 7 ± 1, a volumetric organic load of 1,968 mg/L COD (chemical oxygen demand – COD), high ammoniacal nitrogen loading rates of 1,904.1 mg/L, food to microorganism ratio of 0.25, mixed liquor volatile suspended solid of 1,500 mg/L, sludge age of 2.7 d and hydraulic retention time of 1.7 d for 13 d duration of the experiment, respectively. The efficiency of both reactors was assessed based on the reduction in biochemical oxygen demand (BOD 5 ), COD, ammoniacal nitrogen (NH 3 –N), total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN), phosphate (PO 4 3– ), nitrite (NO 2 –1 ), nitrate (NO 3 –1 ), suspended solids and color. The results revealed that the reactor with CASBF efficiency removed NO 2 –1 , NO 3 –1 and PO 4 3– were 77.7% with effluent concentration 10 mg L –1 , 86.25% with effluent concentration 21.0 mg L –1 , and 63.2% with effluent concentration 18.1 mg L –1 respectively from young leachate in comparison to CASR which exhibited the efficiently removed of NO 2 –1 , NO 3 –1 , and PO 4 3– was 20.7% with effluent concentration 36.1 mg L –1 , 54.2% with effluent concentration 69.9 mg L –1 , and 45.6% with effluent con- centration 26.5 mg L –1 , respectively. However, the reduction of NH 3 –N also TKN was more within the CASR and achieved 68.7% with effluent concentration 538.90 mg L –1 for TKN and 92.5% with effluent concentration 134.2 mg L –1 for NH 3 –N. This reduction is achieved via nitrification and denitrification processes. These findings indicated that CASBF has high efficiency of removal of COD, BOD, NO 3 –1 , and PO 4 3– from sanitary landfill young leachate and have the applicability for sanitary landfill young leachate treatment. Keywords: Landfill leachate; Reduction; Parameters; Efficiency; Comparison 1. Introduction The high-strength sanitary landfill young leachate is one of the more completed wastes due to the high concentrations of non-degradable chemical substances. These wastes show biodegradable qualities (BOD/COD) > 0.4 (biochemical oxy- gen demand – BOD/chemical oxygen demand – COD). The COD/N/P ratio is optimum for biological treatment process- ing due to the high total phosphorus (TP) and total nitrogen (TN) contents ranging from 10–25 mg/L and 700–1,800 mg/L