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Temperature influence on biological phosphorus removal induced by aerobic/extended-idle regime

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Abstract

Previous researches have demonstrated that biological phosphorus removal (BPR) from wastewater could be driven by the aerobic/extended-idle (A/EI) regime. This study further investigated temperature effects on phosphorus removal performance in six A/EI sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) operated at temperatures ranging from 5 to 30 °C. The results showed that phosphorus removal efficiency increased with temperature increasing from 5 to 20 °C but slightly decreased when temperature continually increased to 30 °C. The highest phosphorus removal rate of 97.1 % was obtained at 20 °C. The biomass cultured at 20 °C contained more polyphosphate accumulating organisms (PAO) and less glycogen accumulating organisms (GAO) than that cultured at any other temperatures investigated. The mechanism studies revealed that temperature affected the transformations of glycogen and polyhydroxyalkanoates, and the activities of exopolyphosphatase and polyphosphate kinase activities. In addition, phosphorus removal performances of the A/EI and traditional anaerobic/oxic (A/O) SBRs were compared at 5 and 20 °C, respectively. The results showed the A/EI regime drove better phosphorus removal than the A/O regime at both 5 and 20 °C, and more PAO and less GAO abundances in the biomass might be the principal reason for the higher BPR in the A/EI SBRs as compared with the A/O SBRs.

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Acknowledgments

This material is based upon work supported by the project of National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (nos. 51278175 and 51378188), International Science & Technology Cooperation Program of China (no. 2012DFB30030-03), Shanghai Postdoctoral Scientific Program (12R21415700), and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2012M510888).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China

    Hong-bo Chen, Dong-bo Wang, Xiao-ming Li, Qi Yang, Kun Luo & Guang-ming Zeng

  2. Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control (Hunan University), Ministry of Education, Changsha, 410082, China

    Hong-bo Chen, Dong-bo Wang, Xiao-ming Li, Qi Yang, Kun Luo & Guang-ming Zeng

  3. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, 1239 Siping Road, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Dong-bo Wang

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  1. Hong-bo Chen
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  2. Dong-bo Wang
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  3. Xiao-ming Li
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  4. Qi Yang
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  5. Kun Luo
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  6. Guang-ming Zeng
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Correspondence to Dong-bo Wang or Xiao-ming Li.

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Responsible editor: Robert Duran

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Chen, Hb., Wang, Db., Li, Xm. et al. Temperature influence on biological phosphorus removal induced by aerobic/extended-idle regime. Environ Sci Pollut Res 21, 6034–6043 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-2547-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-2547-y

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