Sludge fermentation liquid addition attained advanced nitrogen removal in low C/N ratio municipal wastewater through short-cut nitrification-denitrification and partial anammox
National Engineering Laboratory for Advanced Municipal Wastewater Treatment and Reuse Technology, Engineering Research Center of Beijing, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China
• Sludge fermentation liquid addition resulted in a high NAR of 97.4%.
• Extra NH4+-N from SFL was removed by anammox in anoxic phase.
• Nitrogen removal efficiency of 92.51% was achieved in municipal wastewater.
• The novel system could efficiently treat low COD/N municipal wastewater.
Biological nitrogen removal of wastewater with low COD/N ratio could be enhanced by the addition of wasted sludge fermentation liquid (SFL), but the performance is usually limited by the introducing ammonium. In this study, the process of using SFL was successfully improved by involving anammox process. Real municipal wastewater with a low C/N ratio of 2.8–3.4 was treated in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR). The SBR was operated under anaerobic-aerobic-anoxic (AOA) mode and excess SFL was added into the anoxic phase. Stable short-cut nitrification was achieved after 46d and then anammox sludge was inoculated. In the stable period, effluent total inorganic nitrogen (TIN) was less than 4.3 mg/L with removal efficiency of 92.3%. Further analysis suggests that anammox bacteria, mainly affiliated with Candidatus_Kuenenia, successfully reduced the external ammonia from the SFL and contributed approximately 28%–43% to TIN removal. Overall, this study suggests anammox could be combined with SFL addition, resulting in a stable enhanced nitrogen biological removal.
Fig.1 Schematic diagram of BNR system with sludge fermentation liquid as carbon source and operational conditions during the experimental periods.
Strain
Primers
Sequence
Annealing temperature (°C)
Reference
AOB
amoA-1F/amoA-2r
GGGGTTTCTACTGGTGGT/ CCCCTCKGSAAAGCCTTCTTC
55
Wang et al.(2011)
Nitrospira
NSR 1113F/NSR1264r
CCTGCTTTCAGTTGCTACCG/ GTTTGCAGCGCTTTGTACCG
53
Geets et al. (2007)
Nitrobacter
FGPS872f/FGPS1269r
CTAAAACTCAAAGGAATTGA/ TTTTTTGAGATTTGCTAG
51
Degrange and Bardin (1995)
Anammox
AMX368f/AMX820r
TTCGCAATGCCCGAAAGG/ AAAACCCCTCTACTTAGTGCCC
56
Schmid et al. (2005)
Tab.1 The qPCR primers and annealing temperatures
Fig.2 Transformation of nitrogen in the aerobic phase (a), and variations of bacterial activities (b) and abundance (c) on Day 1, Day 48 and Day 103.
Fig.3 Variation of TN (a) and COD (b), and their removal efficiency.
Fig.4 Variations in NH4+-N, NO2--N, NO3−-N, and COD concentrations during two typical cycles on Day 43 (a) and Day 103 (b).
Fig.5 Nitrogen removal pathway (a) and the model-based evaluation (b).
Phylum
Genus
Percentage (%)
Day48
Day103
Proteobacteria
Nitrosomonas
0.51
0.14
Ellin6067
0.37
0.88
Competibacter
0.85
6.01
Denitratisoma
2.89
4.35
Ottowia
1.04
1.85
Dechloromonas
2.7
1.37
Thauera
4.68
0.08
Nitrospira
1.18
0
Rhodobacter
0.22
0.17
Hydrogenophilaceae
0.58
0.33
Actinobacteria
Candidatus_Microthrix
1.3
0.16
IMCC 26207
0.75
1.36
Chloroflexi
Caldilinea
2.34
1.86
OLB14 uncultured
2.5
1.16
Bacteroidia
Saprospiraceae
2.19
6.92
Sediminibacterium
0.66
1.42
Phaeodactylibacter
1.33
1.41
Planctomycetes
Candidatus_Kuenenia
0.38
0.22
SM1A02
0.69
0.34
Tab.2 Taxonomic classification of the major genus based on 16S rRNA gene sequences in SBR on Day 48 and Day 103
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