The mainstream partial nitritation/anammox (PN/A) process has been intensively studied but its stability remains a key challenge. It is shown here that biofilm thickness can exhibit a critical role ...in controlling the process stability of mainstream PN/A against dissolved oxygen (DO) variation. In a laboratory moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR), PN/A performance was initially established in 200 days by controlling a low DO of 0.13 ± 0.07 mg O2/L in the bulk liquid, which deteriorated with an increase of DO (0.35 ± 0.13 mg O2/L) for over two months, and then rapidly recovered in a month with the initial low DO level re-applied. Biofilm thickness of PN/A carriers was measured during the experiment, which became significantly thinner (367 ± 146 μm) at mainstream conditions. The thin thickness primarily decreased the in-situ consumption rate of nitrite, rather than ammonium, when DO increased from 0.1 to 0.4 mg O2/L, due to that the thin thickness can only restrict anammox capacity. These results illustrated the role of biofilm thickness in regulating PN/A performance and microbial activities. Further investigation using an established model revealed the joint contribution of biofilm thickness and DO concentration to PN/A process, while particularly, the biofilm thickness can determine the optimal DO level for maximizing the nitrogen removal efficiency and system robustness against DO variation. These results highlight the need of considering biofilm thickness in PN/A process optimization and stability improvement in low-strength wastewater treatment.
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•N-removal efficiency >80% is achieved via PN/A in a mainstream MBBR.•The mainstream PN/A is stably realized at DO concentration of 0.13 ± 0.07 mgO2/L.•Biofilm thickness controls the maximal capacity of anammox rather than AOB or NOB.•A narrow DO range (0.15-0.20 mgO2/L) is required for high N-removal in thin biofilm.
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•Manure application significantly increased both PAO and PNO.•Manure fertilization augmented nitrifier abundance.•Soil NH4+-N and TC are good indicators for NOB and comammox ...community.•Community composition of NOB and comammox was affected by both soil type and manure fertilizer.•Manure fertilizer made nitrifier community more closely linked and stimulated the function performance of nitrifiers.
Nitrification plays an important role in the soil nitrogen cycle. Here, we conducted an experiment in three different soil types (red soil, black soil, and alluvial soil) to evaluate the response of nitrifiers and nitrification to manure fertilizers. We found that long-term manure fertilization altered the soil physicochemical properties, increased soil organic matter and NO3－-N concentrations, and decreased NH4+-N concentrations. Both ammonia and nitrite oxidation potential were higher in the manured soils than those in the control soils. Long-term manure fertilization markedely increased the abundance of nitrifiers and the abundance of the complete ammonia oxidation (comammox) amoA gene copy number ranged from 0.78 × 106 to 2.18 × 106 g−1 dry soil, which was lower than that of canonical nitrifiers including ammonia‐oxidizing archaea, ammonia‐oxidizing bacteria, and nitrite‐oxidizing bacteria (NOB). The community composition of NOB and comammox was affected by both soil type and manure fertilizer. Soil NH4+-N concentration and total carbon content were the factors that were most strongly correlated with the microbial community composition. Manure fertilizers promoted the coupling linkages among soil Nitrobacter, Nitrospira, and comammox communities and created a more closely linked microbial community. The results suggest that long-term inputs of manure to agricultural soils influence the structure of NOB and increase nitrification rates.
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•NH2OH has a strong inhibition on NOB.•Inhibition of NOB by 5 mg-N/L NH2OH is reversible.•NH2OH addition caused production of NO and N2O to increase.•Inhibition of Nitrospira by NH2OH ...could be related to NO production.
This study investigated a strategy for hydroxylamine (NH2OH) addition for promoting the conversion of complete nitrification to partial nitrification in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR). The results showed that continuous dosing of 5 mg-N/L NH2OH into a complete nitrification reactor for 16 days led to an increase in the nitrite accumulation ratio (NAR) from 0.22% to 95.08% and a significant enhancement in the accumulation of NO and N2O in the liquid. The maximum concentration of NO in each cycle rose with the increase of NAR during NH2OH addition. With the stopping of NH2OH addition, the partial nitrification disappeared progressively in 21 days. The analysis for microbial community showed that Nitrospira was the main NOB and its relative abundance decreased with NH2OH addition and recovered after the cessation of NH2OH addition. Accordingly, NH2OH has a significant and reversible inhibition on Nitrospira and its essence might be related to NO toxicity.
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•A two-stage PN/A system successfully treated undiluted THP/AD dewatering liquor.•Startup by gradually reducing HRT from 20 to 9 h enabled to reach stable PN process.•PN unit operated ...for 778 days treating high loading rates up to 4.8 g NH4+-N/(L·d).•Inhibitory effects of THP/AD dewatering liquor are removed by the PN reactor itself.•No adverse effect related to the THP/AD process was observed in the anammox reactor.
A two-stage system (partial nitritation (PN) and anammox processes) was used to remove nitrogen from the dewatering liquor originating from the thermal hydrolysis/anaerobic digestion (THP/AD) of municipal WWTP sludge. Two strategies were tested to start up the PN reactor: 1) maintaining a fixed hydraulic retention time (HRT) and increasing the ammonium loading rate (ALR) by decreasing the feeding dilution ratio and 2) feeding undiluted dewatering liquor and gradually decreasing the HRT. With diluted feeding, the reactor performance had destabilization episodes that were statistically correlated with the application of high specific ammonium (> 0.6 g NH4+-N/(g TSS·d)) and organic (> 0.7 g COD/(g TSS·d)) loading rates. The second strategy allowed stable PN reactor operation while treating ALR up to 4.8 g NH4+-N/(L·d) and demonstrating that dilution of THP/AD effluents is not required. The operating conditions promoted the presence of free nitrous acid levels (> 0.14 mg HNO2-N/L) inside the PN reactor that inhibited the proliferation of nitrite oxidizing bacteria.
Batch activity tests showed that the inhibitory effects of organic compounds present in the THP/AD dewatering liquor on the ammonia oxidizing bacteria activity can be removed in the PN reactor. Thus, aerobic pretreatment would not be necessary when two-stage systems are used. The PN reactor effluent was successfully treated by an anammox reactor.
An economic analysis showed that using two-stage systems is advantageous for treating THP/AD dewatering liquor. The implementation of an aerobic pre-treatment unit is recommended for WWTPs capacities higher than 5·105 inhabitants equivalent when one-stage systems are used.
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•Achieving PN in domestic wastewater controlled by aeration time.•AOB and NOB activities eliminated entirely during simultaneous elimination period.•Prolonged aeration time led to AOB ...quickly recovery, on the contrary to NOB.•Stable PN maintained for 205 days with high NAR (96%) and ARE (94.3%).•Without additional chemical agents and infrastructure costs for this strategy.
This study developed a novel strategy for rapidly achieving partial nitrification (PN) without additional chemical agents, and infrastructure costs, only by controlling aeration time to selectively enrich ammonium oxidizing bacteria (AOB) after simultaneously eliminating AOB and nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB). Shorter aeration time and sludge retention time (10 days) were implemented to simultaneously eliminate AOB and NOB, the bioactivities drastically decreased to 13 and 0%, respectively. Subsequently, a gradually prolonged aeration time selectively enriched AOB and resulted in PN. The amoA abundances increased to 1.9 × 1010 copies gVSS−1, whereas Nitrospira and Nitrobacter abundances remained stable (3.2 × 109 and 3.1 × 109 copies gVSS−1). A nitrite accumulation rate above 96% was achieved and maintained for 205 days over the entire temperature range (28.5–17.9 °C). The effluent contained 1.9 mg N L−1 of ammonium, 25.3 mg N L−1 of nitrite, and less than 1.0 mg N L−1 of nitrate, facilitating mainstream wastewater anammox.
This work describes the development of an intermittently aerated pilot-scale process (V = 0.34 m(3)) operated without oxidized nitrogen recycle and supplemental carbon addition optimized for nitrogen ...removal via nitritation/denitritation. The aeration pattern was controlled using a novel aeration strategy based on set-points for reactor ammonia, nitrite and nitrate concentrations with the aim of maintaining equal effluent ammonia and nitrate + nitrite (NOx) concentrations. Further, unique operational and process control strategies were developed to facilitate the out-selection of nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB) based on optimizing the chemical oxygen demand (COD) input, imposing transient anoxia, aggressive solids retention time (SRT) operation towards ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) washout and high dissolved oxygen (DO) (>1.5 mg/L). Sustained nitrite accumulation (NO2-N/NOx-N = 0.36 ± 0.27) was observed while AOB activity was greater than NOB activity (AOB: 391 ± 124 mgN/L/d, NOB: 233 ± 151 mgN/L/d, p < 0.001) during the entire study. The reactor demonstrated total inorganic nitrogen (TIN) removal rate of 151 ± 74 mgN/L/d at an influent COD/ Formula: see text -N ratio of 10.4 ± 1.9 at 25 °C. The TIN removal efficiency was 57 ± 25% within the hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 3 h and within an SRT of 4-8 days. Therefore, this pilot-scale study demonstrates that application of the proposed online aeration control is able to out-select NOB in mainstream conditions providing relatively high nitrogen removal without supplemental carbon and alkalinity at a low HRT.
Membrane aerated biofilm reactor (MABR) and shortcut nitrogen removal are two types of solutions to reduce energy consumption in wastewater treatment, with the former improving the aeration ...efficiency and the latter reducing the oxygen demand. However, integrating these two solutions, i.e., achieving shortcut nitrogen removal in MABR, is challenging due to the difficulty in suppressing nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB). In this study, four MABRs were established to demonstrate the feasibility of initiating, maintaining, and restoring NOB suppression using low dissolved oxygen (DO) control, in the presence and absence of anammox bacteria, respectively. Long-term results revealed that the strict low DO (< 0.1 mg/L) in MABR could initiate and maintain stable NOB suppression for more than five months with nitrite accumulation ratio above 90 %, but it was unable to re-suppress NOB once they prevailed. Moreover, the presence of anammox bacteria increased the threshold of DO level to maintain NOB suppression in MABRs, but it was still incapable to restore the deteriorated NOB suppression in conjunction with low DO control. Mathematical modelling confirmed the experimental results and further explored the differences of NOB suppression in conventional biofilms and MABR biofilms. Simulation results showed that it is more challenging to maintain stable NOB suppression in MABRs compared to conventional biofilms, regardless of biofilm thickness or influent nitrogen concentration. Kinetic mechanisms for NOB suppression in different types of biofilms were proposed, suggesting that it is difficult to wash out NOB developed in the innermost layer of MABR biofilms because of the high oxygen level and low sludge wasting rate. In summary, this study systematically demonstrated the challenges of NOB suppression in MABRs through both experiments and mathematical modelling. These findings provide valuable insights into the applications of MABRs and call for more studies in developing effective strategies to achieve stable shortcut nitrogen removal in this energy-efficient configuration.
Nitrification is a vital ecosystem function in the open ocean that regenerates inorganic nitrogen and promotes primary production. Recent studies have shown that the ecology and physiology of ...nitrifying organisms is more complex than previously postulated. The distribution of these organisms in the remote oligotrophic ocean and their interactions with the physicochemical environment are relatively understudied. In this work, we aimed to evaluate the depth profile of nitrifying archaea and bacteria in the Eastern North Pacific Subtropical Front, an area with limited biological surveys but with intense trophic transferences and physicochemical gradients. Furthermore, we investigated the dominant physicochemical and biological relationships within and between ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA), ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB), and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) as well as with the overall prokaryotic community. We used a 16S rRNA gene sequencing approach to identify and characterize the nitrifying groups within the first 500 m of the water column and to analyze their abiotic and biotic interactions. The water column was characterized mainly by two contrasting environments, warm O
-rich surface waters with low dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) and a cold O
-deficient mesopelagic layer with high concentrations of nitrate (NO
). Thaumarcheotal AOA and bacterial NOB were highly abundant below the deep chlorophyll maximum (DCM) and in the mesopelagic. In the mesopelagic, AOA and NOB represented up to 25 and 3% of the total prokaryotic community, respectively. Interestingly, the AOA community in the mesopelagic was dominated by unclassified genera that may constitute a novel group of AOA highly adapted to the conditions observed at those depths. Several of these unclassified amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) were positively correlated with NO
concentrations and negatively correlated with temperature and O
, whereas known thaumarcheotal genera exhibited the opposite behavior. Additionally, we found a large network of positive interactions within and between putative nitrifying ASVs and other prokaryotic groups, including 13230 significant correlations and 23 sub-communities of AOA, AOB, NOB, irrespective of their taxonomic classification. This study provides new insights into our understanding of the roles that AOA may play in recycling inorganic nitrogen in the oligotrophic ocean, with potential consequences to primary production in these remote ecosystems.
The development of new wastewater treatment processes can assist in reducing the impact of wastewater treatment on the environment. The recently developed partial nitritation anammox (PNA) process, ...for example, consumes less energy for aeration and reduces nitrate in the effluent without requiring additional organic carbon. However, achieving stable nitritation (ammonium oxidation; NH4+ → NO2−) at mainstream conditions (T = 10–25 °C, C:N > 10, influent ammonium < 50 mgNH4-N/L and effluent < 1 mgNH4-N/L) remains challenging. This study explores the potential and mechanism of nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) suppression in a bottom-fed sequencing batch reactor (SBR). Two bench-scale (11 L) reactors and a pilot-scale reactor (8 m3) were operated for over a year and were fed with organic substrate depleted municipal wastewater. Initially, nitratation (nitrite oxidation; NO2− → NO3−) occurred occasionally until an anaerobic phase was integrated into the operating cycle. The introduction of the anaerobic phase effectively suppressed the regrowth of NOB while nitritation was stable over 300 days, down to 8 °C and at ammonium influent concentrations < 25 mgNH4-N/L. Batch experiments and process data revealed that parameters typically affecting NOB growth (e.g., dissolved oxygen, alkalinity, trace elements, lag-phase after anoxia, free nitrous acid (FNA), free ammonia (FA), pH, sulfide, or solids retention time (SRT)) could not fully explain the suppression of nitratation. Experiments in which fresh nitrifying microbial biomass was added to the nitritation system indicated that NOB inactivation explained NOB suppression better than NOB washout at high SRT. This study concludes that bottom-fed SBRs with anaerobic phases allow for stable nitritation over a broad range of operational parameters. Coupling this type of SBR to an anammox reactor can enable efficient mainstream anammox-based wastewater treatment.
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•Nitritation was stable in municipal wastewater, even at low temperatures (8 °C).•A one-hour anaerobic phase, after reactor filling, rapidly established nitritation.•Bottom-feeding was used for a 90% volume exchange each SBR cycle.•NOB suppression is driven by NOB inactivation rather than washout.•Up-scaling of nitritation to an 8 m3 reactor was successful.
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