TY - JOUR
T1 - Understanding the microbial trends in a nitritation reactor fed with primary settled municipal wastewater
AU - Pedrouso, Alba
AU - Correa-Galeote, David
AU - Maza-Márquez, Paula
AU - Juárez-Jimenez, Belén
AU - González-López, Jesús
AU - Rodelas, Belén
AU - Campos, Jose Luis
AU - Mosquera-Corral, Anuska
AU - Val del Rio, Angeles
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2021/2/1
Y1 - 2021/2/1
N2 - Partial nitritation was pointed out as the key step to implement the autotrophic nitrogen removal processes at low temperature. This study investigated the initiation and maintenance of a nitritation process with simultaneous COD removal in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) run at 15 °C and fed with primary settled urban wastewater characterized by 42 ± 10 mg TOC/L and 45 ± 4 mg NH4+-N/L. A nitrite accumulation ratio of nearly 100% was observed and the long-term (354 days) process stability was successfully maintained despite the municipal wastewater composition fluctuations. The absence of nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB) activity was attributed to the free nitrous acid (FNA) in-situ accumulated at high levels (0.02–0.20 mg HNO2-N/L). Despite nitrate production was not observed, the quantification of bacterial groups indicated that NOB were present in the SBR sludge throughout the entire operational period. Ammonium oxidizing bacteria (AOB) abundance and community structure were significantly influenced by the organic matter present in the feeding. Average organic matter removal efficiencies of 80% were obtained without observing any detrimental effect over the nitritation process performance, due to the functional redundancy within both the chemoheterotrophic and AOB communities.
AB - Partial nitritation was pointed out as the key step to implement the autotrophic nitrogen removal processes at low temperature. This study investigated the initiation and maintenance of a nitritation process with simultaneous COD removal in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) run at 15 °C and fed with primary settled urban wastewater characterized by 42 ± 10 mg TOC/L and 45 ± 4 mg NH4+-N/L. A nitrite accumulation ratio of nearly 100% was observed and the long-term (354 days) process stability was successfully maintained despite the municipal wastewater composition fluctuations. The absence of nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB) activity was attributed to the free nitrous acid (FNA) in-situ accumulated at high levels (0.02–0.20 mg HNO2-N/L). Despite nitrate production was not observed, the quantification of bacterial groups indicated that NOB were present in the SBR sludge throughout the entire operational period. Ammonium oxidizing bacteria (AOB) abundance and community structure were significantly influenced by the organic matter present in the feeding. Average organic matter removal efficiencies of 80% were obtained without observing any detrimental effect over the nitritation process performance, due to the functional redundancy within both the chemoheterotrophic and AOB communities.
KW - Autotrophic nitrogen removal
KW - Free nitrous acid
KW - Low temperature
KW - Mainstream
KW - Nitrite oxidation inhibition
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85092405893&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.seppur.2020.117828
DO - 10.1016/j.seppur.2020.117828
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85092405893
SN - 1383-5866
VL - 256
JO - Separation and Purification Technology
JF - Separation and Purification Technology
M1 - 117828
ER -