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BACKGROUND: A membrane bioreactor and two hybrid moving bed biofilm reactor‐membrane bioreactor systems were operated in parallel for the treatment of variable‐salinity wastewater. Influent salinity was changed according to tidal‐like cycles: 6 h of maximum salinity (4.5 or 8.5 mS cm−1) followed by 6 h of regular wastewater salinity (around 1 mS cm−1). RESULTS: For the two salinity scenarios, the bioprocesses operated under different conditions of mixed liquor total suspended solids (2500 and 3500 mg L−1), and hydraulic retention time (6, 9.5 and 12 h). The results showed that the bioprocesses had better performance under 4.5 mS cm−1 than under 8.5 mS cm−1 in terms of removal of biological oxygen demand at day 5 (BOD5) (+6.07%), ammonium cation (NH4+) (+41.29%) and total nitrogen (+37.64%), the heterotrophic and autotrophic yield coefficients (+0.02777 mgVSS mgCOD−1 and +0.13990 mgVSS mgN−1), and the autotrophic rate of substrate utilization (+3.39559 mgN L−1 h−1). CONCLUSIONS: The results obtained would become of help for the modeling of membrane‐based systems treating variable saline wastewater. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autotrophic nitrogen removal systems have been implemented at full-scale and provide an efficient way for nitrogen removal from industrial and urban wastewaters. Our study present qualitative and quantitative analysis of archaeal and bacterial amoA genes and Candidatus Brocadiales bacteria analyzed in six full-scale autotrophic nitrogen removal bioreactors. The results showed that ammonium oxidizing bacteria (AOB) were detected in all bioreactors. However, ammonium oxidizing archaea (AOA) were detected only in the non-aerated technologies. Conversely, different Candidatus Brocadiales phylotypes appeared due to differences in influent wastewater composition and hydraulic retention time (HRT). In the same terms multivariate redundancy analysis confirmed that AOA was positively correlated with temperature, ammonium concentration and low HRT. However, AOB population was positively correlated with pH, temperature, and dissolved oxygen concentration. Our data suggested a correlation between the microorganisms involved in the nitrogen removal performance and the operational conditions in the different full-scale bioreactors. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 64: 457-467, 2018 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Partial-nitritation processes are used for the biological treatment of high nitrogen-low organic carbon effluents, such as anaerobic digestion reject water. The release of certain products generated during the anaerobic digestion process, such as amino acids, could potentially reduce the performance of these partial-nitritation bioprocesses. To investigate this, four partial-nitritation biofilters were subjected to continuous addition of 0, 150, 300, and 500 mg L−1 cysteine amino acid in their influents. The addition of the amino acid had an impact over the performance of the partial-nitritation process and the bacterial community dynamics of the systems analyzed. Ammonium oxidation efficiency decreased with the addition of the amino acid, and a net nitrogen elimination occurred in presence of cysteine through the operation period. Bacterial community dynamics showed a decrease of Nitrosomonas species and a proliferation of putative heterotrophs with nitrification capacity, such as Pseudomonas, or denitrification capacity, such as Denitrobacter or Alicycliphilus. The addition of cysteine irreversible affected the bioreactors, which could not achieve the performance obtained before the addition of the amino acid. A mathematical predictive equation of the process performance depending on cysteine concentration added and operational time under such concentration was developed. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 32:1254-1263, 2016 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bacterial community structure of full-scale anammox bioreactor is still mainly unknown. It has never been analyzed whether different anammox bioreactor configurations might result in the development of different bacterial community structures among these systems. In this work, the bacterial community structure of six full-scale autotrophic nitrogen removal bioreactors located in The Netherlands and China operating under three different technologies and with different influent wastewater characteristics was studied by the means of pyrotag sequencing evaluation of the bacterial assemblage yielded a great diversity in all systems. The most represented phyla were the Bacteroidetes and the Proteobacteria, followed by the Planctomycetes. 14 OTUs were shared by all bioreactors, but none of them belonged to the Brocadiales order. Statistical analysis at OTU level showed that differences in the microbial communities were high, and that the main driver of the bacterial assemblage composition was different for the distinct phyla identified in the six bioreactors, depending on bioreactor technology or influent wastewater characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autotrophic nitrogen removal technologies have proliferated through the last decade. Among these, a promising one is the membrane bioreactor (MBR) Anammox, which can achieve very high solids retention time and therefore sets a proper environment for the cultivation of anammox bacteria. In this sense, the MBR Anammox is an efficient technology for the treatment of effluents with low organic carbon and high ammonium concentrations once it has been treated under partial nitrification systems. A lab-scale MBR Anammox bioreactor has been built at the Technological University of Delft, The Netherlands and has been proven for efficient nitrogen removal and efficient cultivation of anammox bacteria. In this study, next-generation sequencing techniques have been used for the investigation of the bacterial communities of this MBR Anammox for the first time ever. A strong domination of Candidatus Brocadia bacterium and also the presence of a myriad of other microorganisms that have adapted to this environment were detected, suggesting that the MBR Anammox bioreactor might have a more complex microbial ecosystem that it has been thought. Among these, nitrate-reducing heterotrophs and primary producers, among others, were identified. Definition of the ecological roles of the OTUs identified through metagenomic analysis was discussed. © 2014 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 31:186-193, 2015 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]