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Ammonium removal of drinking water at low temperature by activated carbon filter biologically enhanced with heterotrophic nitrifying bacteria

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Abstract

We sought to confirm whether use of Acinetobacter strains Y7 and Y16, both strains of heterotrophic nitrifying bacteria, was practical for removing ammonium (NH4 +-N) from drinking water at low temperatures. To test this, ammonium-containing drinking water was treated with strains Y7 and Y16 at 8 and 2 °C. Continuous ammonium treatment was conducted in order to evaluate the performance of three biologically enhanced activated carbon (BEAC) filters in removing ammonium. The three BEAC filters were inoculated with strain Y7, strain Y16, and a mixture of strains Y7 and Y16, respectively. A granular activated carbon (GAC) filter, without inoculation by any strains, was tested in parallel with the BEAC filters as control. The results indicated that NH4 +-N removal was significant when a BEAC filter was inoculated with the mixture of strains Y7 and Y16 (BEAC-III filter). Amounts of 0.44 ± 0.05 and 0.25 ± 0.05 mg L−1 NH4 +-N were removed using the BEAC-III filter at 8 and 2 °C, respectively. These values were 2.8–4.0-fold higher than the values of ammonium removal acquired using the GAC filter. The synergistic effect of using strains Y7 and Y16 in concert was the cause of the high-ammonium removal efficiency achieved by using the BEAC-III filter at low temperatures. In addition, a high C/N ratio may promote NH4 +-N removal efficiency by improving biomass and microbial activity. This study provides new insight into the use of biofilters to achieve biological removal of ammonium at low temperature.

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Acknowledgments

The present research was carried out at the State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment of the School of Municipal and Environment Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology. The project is supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51578178) and Heilongjiang province Research Council (Grant No. GA13C302). The authors gratefully acknowledge our colleagues in this program that have made significant contributions during the experiments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Municipal and Environment Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150090, People’s Republic of China

    Wen Qin, Wei-Guang Li, Duo-Ying Zhang, Xiao-Fei Huang & Yang Song

  2. State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin, 150090, People’s Republic of China

    Wei-Guang Li

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  1. Wen Qin
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  2. Wei-Guang Li
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  3. Duo-Ying Zhang
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  4. Xiao-Fei Huang
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  5. Yang Song
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Correspondence to Wei-Guang Li or Duo-Ying Zhang.

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The manuscript is the original work of authors, and it has not been previously submitted to Environmental Science and Pollution Research and other journals for simultaneous consideration. The manuscript has not been published previously (partly or in full). And this study is not split up into several parts to increase the quantity of submissions and submitted to various journals or to one journal over time. No data have been fabricated or manipulated (including images) to support your conclusions. No data, text, or theories by others are presented as if they were the author’s own. All authors mutually agree for its submission in Environmental Science and Pollution Research. The publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out.

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Qin, W., Li, WG., Zhang, DY. et al. Ammonium removal of drinking water at low temperature by activated carbon filter biologically enhanced with heterotrophic nitrifying bacteria. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23, 4650–4659 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-5561-9

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