Search

Enterobacter sp. strain FL was newly isolated from activated sludge and exhibited significant capability of auto-aggregation as well as aerobic denitrification. The removal efficiencies of NO3−-N, total nitrogen (TN), and TOC by strain FL in batch culture reached 94.6, 63.9, and 72.5% in 24 h, respectively. The production of N2O and N2 in the presence of oxygen demonstrated the occurrence of aerobic denitrification. The auto-aggregation index of strain FL reached 54.3%, suggesting a high tendency that the cells would agglomerate into aggregates. The production of extracellular polymeric substances (EPSs), which were mainly composed of proteins followed by polysaccharides, was considered to be related to the cell aggregation according to Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). The proteins in EPS were evenly and tightly combined to cells and altered the protein secondary structures of cell surface from random coils to β-sheets and three-turn helices. The alteration of protein secondary structures of cell surface caused by the proteins in EPS might play a dominant role in the auto-aggregation of strain FL. To further assess the feasibility of strain FL for synthetic wastewater treatment, a sequencing batch reactor (SBR), solely inoculated with strain FL, was conducted. During the 16 running cycles, the removal efficiency of NO3−-N was 90.2–99.7% and the auto-aggregation index was stabilized at 35.0–41.5%. The EPS promoted the biomass of strain FL to aggregate in the SBR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Short initial settling time and rapidly increased ammonium nitrogen loading were employed to cultivate nitrifying granular sludge treating inorganic wastewater with 1000 mg/L ammonium nitrogen. It was found that the nitrifying granule-dominant sludge was formed in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) with influent ammonium concentration increased from 200 to 1000 mg N/L within 55 days. During the following 155-day operation period, nitrifying granules exhibited good performance with an ammonium removal efficiency of 99 %. In the meantime, sludge volume index (SVI) decreased from 92 to 15 mL/g and the mean size of the nitrifying granules increased from 106 to 369 μm. Mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) decreased from the initial 6.4 to around 3 g/L during the granulation period and increased to over 10 g/L at the end of the operation. The long-term stability of nitrifying granules and the reactor performance were not negatively affected by inhibition from free ammonia (FA) and free nitrous acid (FNA) in this study. This makes the granule sludge technology promising in treating high-strength ammonium wastewater in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to analyze the factors affecting the performance of partial nitrification in a sequencing batch reactor. During a 140-day long-term operation, influent pH value, dissolved oxygen (DO), and chemical oxygen demand/nitrogen (COD/N) ratio were selected as operating factors to evaluate the maintenance and recovery of nitrite accumulation. Results showed that high DO concentration (2-4 mg/L) could damage nitrite accumulation immediately. However, nitrite accumulation ratio (NAR) could be increased from 1.68 ± 1.51 to 35.46 ± 7.86 % when increasing the pH values from 7.5 to 8.3 due to the increased free ammonia concentration. Afterwards, stable partial nitrification and high NAR could be recovered when the reactor operated under low DO concentration (0.5-1.0 mg/L). However, it required a long time to recover the partial nitrification of the reactor when the influent COD/N ratios were altered. Fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis implied that ammonium oxidizing bacteria were completely recovered to the dominant nitrifying bacteria in the system. Meanwhile, sludge volumetric index of the reactor gradually decreased from 115.6 to 56.6 mL/g, while the mean diameter of sludge improved from74.57 to 428.8 μm by using the strategy of reducing settling time. The obtained results could provide useful information between the operational conditions and the performance of partial nitrification when treating nitrogen-rich industrial wastewater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aerobic granular sludge was successfully cultivated with the effluent of internal circulation reactor in a pilot-scale sequencing batch reactor (SBR). Soy protein wastewater was used as an external carbon source for altering the influent chemical oxygen demand/nitrogen (COD/N) ratios of SBR. Initially, the phenomenon of partial nitrification was observed and depressed by increasing the influent COD/N ratios from 3.32 to 7.24 mg/mg. After 90 days of aerobic granulation, the mixed liquor suspended solids concentration of the reactor increased from 2.80 to 7.02 g/L, while the sludge volumetric index decreased from 105.51 to 42.99 mL/g. The diameters of mature aerobic granules vary in the range of 1.2 to 2.0 mm. The reactor showed excellent removal performances for COD and $$ {\text{NH}}_4^{ + }{\text{ - N}} $$ after aerobic granulation, and average removal efficiencies were over 93% and 98%, respectively. The result of this study could provide further information on the development of aerobic granule-based system for full-scale applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The diversity of the microbial community was identified in two lab-scale, ideally mixed sequencing batch reactors which were run for 115 days. One of the reactors was intermittently aerated (2 h aerobically/2 h anaerobically) whereas the other was consistently aerated. The amount of biomass as dry matter, the degradation of organic carbon determined by chemical oxygen demand and nitrogen-degradation activity were followed over the operation of the two reactors and did not show significant differences between the two approaches at the end of the experiment. At this point, the composition of the microbial community was determined by a terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism approach using multiple restriction enzymes by which organisms were retrieved to the lowest taxonomic level. The microbial composition was then significantly different. The species richness was at least five-fold higher in the intermittently aerated reactor than in the permanently kept aerobic approach which is in line with the observation that ecosystem disturbances result in higher diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]