Reaction rate of alkaline supernatant of waste activated sludge (WAS) as carbon sources for denitrification was investigated to determine the recycling dosage preliminarily. WAS was digested under alkaline conditions and batch tests were carried out under different VFA/N ratio at SRT=9d to examine the denitrification rate and choose the optimal ratio. And then a comparative test was carried out for actual sewage wastewater and pure sewage wastewater to investigate its feasibility in recycle and the recycling dosage. It was found that denitrification curve of all ratios could be divided into four stages and the denitrification rate increased obviously with the increase of VFA/N ratio

which was consistent with that of the pH curve. While as the ratio increased beyond 2.47

the denitrification rate increased slowly. Furthermore

when the supernatant was added to the sewage wastewater to some extent

denitrification rate increased significantly and the removal amount of nitrate in two parallel tests were 47.0 and 33.9 mg/L

respectively.