Reconsideration on the effect of nitrogen on mixed culture polyhydroxyalkanoate production toward high organic loading enrichment history

doi:10.1007/s11783-019-1135-2

Front. Environ. Sci. Eng.

2019, Vol. 13

Issue (4) : 54 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-019-1135-2

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Reconsideration on the effect of nitrogen on mixed culture polyhydroxyalkanoate production toward high organic loading enrichment history

Zhiqiang Chen^1,², Lizhi Zhao¹, Ye Ji¹, Qinxue Wen¹(

), Long Huang¹

¹. State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China
². School of Civil Engineering, Lanzhou University of Technology, Lanzhou 730070, China

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Abstract

Effect of nitrogen on mixed culture PHA production was reconsidered.

Enrichment history of PHA accumulating culture was discussed.

Higher PHA content and biomass growth were achieved in presence of nitrogen.

Enrichment strategy toward higher PHA accumulation was investigated.

Microbial community succession in PHA accumulation phase was investigated.

In most of the operating strategies for mixed microbial cultures polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) production, moderate organic loads and low nitrogen concentrations are used, however, the real waste streams contain variable concentrations of carbon and nitrogen. To evaluate the effect of enrichment history on PHA producer and production the various carbon and nitrogen levels were utilized during the accumulation phase. Different operating strategies were applied in three sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) subjected to aerobic dynamic feeding. The maximum PHA production of the enriched cultures under nutrient excess, limitation and starvation (Cmol/Nmol ratio of 8, 40 and ∞, respectively) was evaluated in batch assays. A higher PHA content and biomass growth were achieved in the nutrients presence in comparison to the nutrient starvation condition. The cultures from the SBR treated under short sludge retention time, high organic loading rate, short cycle length (SBR#3) and nutrient excess reached the maximum PHA content (54.9%) and biomass increase (38.9%). Under nutrient limitation, the negative biomass growth was observed under nutrient starvation because of the sampling loss. The succession of microbial communities in SBRs and batch assays was analyzed using terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism. The SBR#3 had the best overall PHA production performance considering its high PHA content and productivity in all nutrient content, it indicates that nitrogen has a substantial impact on PHA yield especially when high organic loading rate enrichment history is involved.

Keywords Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) Organic loading rate Nitrogen content Biomass growth Enrichment history

Corresponding Author(s): Qinxue Wen

Issue Date: 15 May 2019

Cite this article:

Zhiqiang Chen,Lizhi Zhao,Ye Ji, et al. Reconsideration on the effect of nitrogen on mixed culture polyhydroxyalkanoate production toward high organic loading enrichment history[J]. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2019, 13(4): 54.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/10.1007/s11783-019-1135-2
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/Y2019/V13/I4/54

Tab.1 Operating strategies of the three SBRs

Fig.1 Change of PHA content and PHA production rate over time under different nutrient levels in the batches of SBR#1 (a, d), SBR#2 (b, e) and SBR#3 (c, f).

Tab.2 Dynamic parameters in the typical cycle of the three SBRs

Tab.3 Average PHA production rate for the batches of the three SBRs (unit: g PHA/g X/h)

Tab.4 Volumetric PHA productivity of the three SBRs under different nutrient conditions (unit: g PHA/L/h)

Fig.2 Relative biomass growth over time under different nutrient levels in the batches of SBR#1 (a), SBR#2 (b) and SBR#3 (c).

Fig.3 PHA content and biomass changes over time of the biomass from SBR #3 under different nutrient levels: (a) PHA content change, (b) biomass change.

Fig.4 Bacteria diversity changes over time of the biomass from SBR #3 under different nutrient levels: (a) Nutrient starvation, (b) nutrient limitation, (c) nutrient excess. Relative abundance was determined by high-throughput sequencing.

Fig.5 PHA productivity variation over time under different nutrient levels in the batches of SBR#1 (a), SBR#2 (b) and SBR#3 (c).

Fig.6 The ratio of PHV to PHA under different nutrient conditions in the batches of SBR#1(a), SBR#2 (b) and SBR#3(c).

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