Biological pretreatment efficiently remove organic matter from landfill leachate, but further removal of refractory hydrophobic organic chemicals (HOCs) is hard even with advanced treatment. In this work, three-stage-aged refuse bioreactor (ARB) efficiently removed chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) of fresh leachate produced in Shanghai laogang landfill, from 8603 to 451 mg L-1 and 1368 to 30 mg L-1, respectively. In downstream treatment, 3 g L-1 powder-activated carbon (PAC), granular-activated carbon (GAC) and biomimetic fat cell (BFC) removed 89.2, 73.4 and 81.1% HOCs, but only 24.6, 19.1 and 8.9% COD, respectively. Through the specific HOCs accumulation characteristics of BFC, about 11.2% HOCs with low molecular weight (<1000 Da) in the biologically treated leachate were concluded. Since HOCs are competitively trapped by dissolved organic matters (DOM), the ultimate removal of HOCs from leachate is unreachable by activated carbon or BFC. It was also found that the biologically treated leachate effluent exhibited a wide molecular weight distribution (34-514,646 Da). These constitutes are derived from both autochthonous and allochthonous matters as well as biological activities. Published by Elsevier B.V.