Abstract:This study was conducted to study the impact of dissolved organic matter (DOM) composition on the efficacy of coagulation, UV Fenton and Electro-Fenton for removing organics in of leachate concentrate from two sources. The DOM removal differences of two kinds of leachate membrane concentrates were compared and analyzed. The dissolved organic carbon (DOC) removal rate of coagulation, UV Fenton, and Electro-Fenton processes were 42%, 66% and 62%, respectively for the 1# leachate concentrate (processed by "MBR+NF"), and were 20%, 60% and 52% respectively for the 2# leachate concentrate (processed by "A/O+RO"). Experimental results showed the different DOC removals between two leachate concentrate samples treated by the same processes. These differences were attributed to different DOM composition between two leachate concentrate samples as indicated by the combined analysis of excitation-emission matrices (EEM) with parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) and liquid chromatography-organic carbon detector (LC-OCD). Compared the 2# leachate concentrate (52% determined by LC-OCD analysis), the 1# leachate concentrate had a higher percentage of high molecular weight (HMW) organics (73% determined by LC-OCD analysis) which were preferentially removed by coagulation and two Fenton-like treatment, thus achieving higher DOC removal rate. Furthermore, it is speculated that macromolecular organics transformation into low molecular weight (LMW) organics and the subsequent mineralization of low molecular weight (LMW) organics may occur during two Fenton-like oxidations. On this basis, it is suggested that coagulation or Fenton-like process can be used if the leachate concentrate containing large portion of HMW organics, a combined coagulation-Fenton-like process was proposed for a better DOC removal in the leachate concentrate containing a large portion of LMW organics.