Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

A novel anammox reactor with a nitrogen gas circulation: performance, granule size, activity, and microbial community

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Environmental Science and Pollution Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Anammox process was regarded to be one of the vital links to achieve energy-saving or energy-producing wastewater treatment plant. In the study, an anammox reactor with the nitrogen gas circulation was constructed to culture anammox granules, and the performance, granule size distribution, and microbial community were investigated. Dissolved oxygen loading is found to be an important factor for the start-up of the anammox process, and the nitrogen removal rate of 2.12 kg N m−3 day−1 was achieved under the average nitrogen loading rate of 2.6 kg N m−3 day−1. The activity test showed that the highest specific anammox activity of 345.9 mg N gVSS−1 day−1 was achieved for granules with size of 0.5–1.0 mm. The Illumina high-throughput sequencing analysis revealed the consistent variation of Candidatus Brocadia and Denitratisoma abundance in granues of all sizes, suggesting possible synergistic mechanism between heterotrophic bacteria Denitratisoma and anammox bacteria Ca. Brocadia. Furthermore, the results indicated the reactor with the nitrogen gas circulation is an efficient strategy to start-up anammox.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • AWWA (2005) Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater. American Water Works Association

  • Azari M, Lubken M, Denecke M (2017) Simulation of simultaneous anammox and denitrification for kinetic and physiological characterization of microbial community in a granular biofilm system. Biochem Eng J 127:206–216

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bagchi S, Biswas R, Nandy T (2010) Alkalinity and dissolved oxygen as controlling parameters for ammonia removal through partial nitritation and ANAMMOX in a single-stage bioreactor. J Ind Microbiol Biotechnol 37:871–876

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cao SB, Li BK, Du R, Ren NQ, Peng YZ (2016) Nitrite production in a partial denitrifying upflow sludge bed (USB) reactor equipped with gas automatic circulation (GAC). Water Res 90:309–316

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cao YS, van Loosdrecht MCM, Daigger GT (2017) Mainstream partial nitritation-anammox in municipal wastewater treatment: status, bottlenecks, and further studies. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 101:1365–1383

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Carvajal-Arroyo JM, Puyol D, Li G, Sierra-Alvarez R, Field JA (2014) The role of pH on the resistance of resting- and active Anammox bacteria to NO2- inhibition. Biotechnol Bioeng 111:1949–1956

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chen JW, Ji QX, Zheng P, Chen TT, Wang CH, Mahmood Q (2010) Floatation and control of granular sludge in a high-rate anammox reactor. Water Res 44:3321–3328

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chen WJ, Dai XH, Cao DW, Hu XN, Liu WR, Yang DH (2017) Characterization of a microbial community in an anammox process using stored Anammox sludge. Water-Sui 9

  • Chen W, Chen S, Wu J (2019) Biomass segregation in the granules and flocs affects the role of heterotrophic bacteria in the ANAMMOX process. Chem Eng J 123727

  • Du R, Peng YZ, Cao SB, Wang SY, Wu CC (2015) Advanced nitrogen removal from wastewater by combining anammox with partial denitrification. Bioresour Technol 179:497–504

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Guo JH, Peng YZ, Fan L, Zhang L, Ni BJ, Kartal B, Feng X, Jetten MSM, Yuan ZG (2016) Metagenomic analysis of anammox communities in three different microbial aggregates. Environ Microbiol 18:2979–2993

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jenni S, Vlaeminck SE, Morgenroth E, Udert KM (2014) Successful application of nitritation/anammox to wastewater with elevated organic carbon to ammonia ratios. Water Res 49:316–326

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ji YX, Jin RC (2014) Effect of different preservation conditions on the reactivation performance of anammox sludge. Sep Purif Technol 133:32–39

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jin RC, Yang GF, Yu JJ, Zheng P (2012) The inhibition of the Anammox process: a review. Chem Eng J 197:67–79

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Koch H, Lucker S, Albertsen M, Kitzinger K, Herbold C, Spieck E, Nielsen PH, Wagner M, Daims H (2015) Expanded metabolic versatility of ubiquitous nitrite-oxidizing bacteria from the genus Nitrospira. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 112:11371–11376

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Laanbroek HJ, Gerards S (1993) Competition for limiting amounts of oxygen between nitrosomonas europaea and Nitrobacter winogradskyi grown in mixed continuous cultures. Arch Microbiol 159

  • Laureni M, Falas P, Robin O, Wick A, Weissbrodt DG, Nielsen JL, Ternes TA, Morgenroth E, Joss A (2016) Mainstream partial nitritation and anammox: long-term process stability and effluent quality at low temperatures. Water Res 101:628–639

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Laureni M, Weissbrodt DG, Villez K, Robin O, de Jonge N, Rosenthal A, Wells G, Nielsen JL, Morgenroth E, Joss A (2019) Biomass segregation between biofilm and flocs improves the control of nitrite-oxidizing bacteria in mainstream partial nitritation and anammox processes. Water Res 154:104–116

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Li HS, Zhou SQ, Ma WH, Huang GT, Xu B (2012) Fast start-up of ANAMMOX reactor: operational strategy and some characteristics as indicators of reactor performance. Desalination 286:436–441

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Li JW, Li JL, Gao RT, Wang M, Yang L, Wang XL, Zhang L, Peng YZ (2018) A critical review of one-stage anammox processes for treating industrial wastewater: optimization strategies based on key functional microorganisms. Bioresour Technol 265:498–505

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Liu WR, Yang DH, Chen WJ, Gu X (2017) High-throughput sequencing-based microbial characterization of size fractionated biomass in an anoxic anammox reactor for low-strength wastewater at low temperatures. Bioresour Technol 231:45–52

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lotti T, Kleerebezem R, Lubello C, van Loosdrecht MCM (2014) Physiological and kinetic characterization of a suspended cell anammox culture. Water Res 60:1–14

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ma B, Peng YZ, Zhang SJ, Wang JM, Gan YP, Chang J, Wang SY, Wang SY, Zhu GB (2013) Performance of anammox UASB reactor treating low strength wastewater under moderate and low temperatures. Bioresour Technol 129:606–611

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ma B, Qian WT, Yuan CS, Yuan ZG, Peng YZ (2017) Achieving mainstream nitrogen removal through coupling Anammox with denitratation. Environ Sci Technol 51:8405–8413

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Miao L, Wang SY, Cao TH, Peng YZ, Zhang M, Liu ZY (2016) Advanced nitrogen removal from landfill leachate via Anammox system based on Sequencing Biofilm Batch Reactor (SBBR): effective protection of biofilm. Bioresour Technol 220:8–16

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Nielsen M, Bollmann A, Sliekers O, Jetten M, Schmid M, Strous M, Schmidt I, Larsen LH, Nielsen LP, Revsbech NP (2005) Kinetics, diffusional limitation and microscale distribution of chemistry and organisms in a CANON reactor. FEMS Microbiol Ecol 51:247–256

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Pol LWH, Lopes SID, Lettinga G, Lens PNL (2004) Anaerobic sludge granulation. Water Res 38:1376–1389

    Google Scholar 

  • Qiu SK, Hu YS, Liu R, Sheng XL, Chen LJ, Wu GX, Hu HY, Zhan XM (2019) Start up of partial nitritation-anammox process using intermittently aerated sequencing batch reactor: performance and microbial community dynamics. Sci Total Environ 647:1188–1198

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rodriguez-Sanchez A, Margareto A, Robledo-Mahon T, Aranda E, Diaz-Cruz S, Gonzalez-Lopez J, Barcelo D, Vahala R, Gonzalez-Martinez A (2017) Performance and bacterial community structure of a granular autotrophic nitrogen removal bioreactor amended with high antibiotic concentrations. Chem Eng J 325:257–269

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Saborimanesh N, Walsh D, Yerushalmi L, Arriagada EC, Mulligan CN (2019) Pilot-scale application of a single-stage hybrid airlift BioCAST bioreactor for treatment of ammonium from nitrite-limited wastewater by a partial nitrification/anammox process. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26:25573–25582

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Shi YJ, Wells G, Morgenroth E (2016) Microbial activity balance in size fractionated suspended growth biomass from full-scale sidestream combined nitritation-anammox reactors. Bioresour Technol 218:38–45

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Shu DT, He YL, Yue H, Gao JL, Wang QY, Yang SC (2016) Enhanced long-term nitrogen removal by organotrophic anammox bacteria under different C/N ratio constraints: quantitative molecular mechanism and microbial community dynamics. RSC Adv 6:87593–87606

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Strous M, Heijnen JJ, Kuenen JG, Jetten MSM (1998) The sequencing batch reactor as a powerful tool for the study of slowly growing anaerobic ammonium-oxidizing microorganisms. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 50:589–596

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sun WJ, Banihani Q, Sierra-Alvarez R, Field JA (2011) Stoichiometric and molecular evidence for the enrichment of anaerobic ammonium oxidizing bacteria from wastewater treatment plant sludge samples. Chemosphere 84:1262–1269

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Suto R, Ishimoto C, Chikyu M, Aihara Y, Matsumoto T, Uenishi H, Yasuda T, Fukumoto Y, Waki M (2017) Anammox biofilm in activated sludge swine wastewater treatment plants. Chemosphere 167:300–307

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Tang CJ, Zheng P, Wang CH, Mahmood Q, Zhang JQ, Chen XG, Zhang L, Chen JW (2011) Performance of high-loaded ANAMMOX UASB reactors containing granular sludge. Water Res 45:135–144

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • van der Star WRL, Miclea AI, van Dongen U, Muyzer G, Picioreanu C, van Loosdrecht MCM (2008) The membrane bioreactor: a novel tool to grow anammox bacteria as free cells. Biotechnol Bioeng 101:286–294

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang DP, Li T, Huang KL, He XW, Zhang XX (2019a) Roles and correlations of functional bacteria and genes in the start-up of simultaneous anammox and denitrification system for enhanced nitrogen removal. Sci Total Environ 655:1355–1363

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wang Y, Xie H, Wang D, Wang W (2019b) Insight into the response of anammox granule rheological intensity and size evolution to decreasing temperature and influent substrate concentration. Water Res 162:258–268

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wu J, Li Y, Zhang M (2017) Activated sludge floc morphology and nitrifier enrichment can explain the conflicting reports on the oxygen half-saturation index for ammonium oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB). J Chem Technol Biotechnol 92:2673–2682

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wu N, Zeng M, Zhu BF, Zhang WY, Liu HX, Yang L, Wang L (2018) Impacts of different morphologies of anammox bacteria on nitrogen removal performance of a hybrid bioreactor: suspended sludge, biofilm and gel beads. Chemosphere 208:460–468

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wu Y, Wang Y, De Costa YG, Tong Z, Cheng JJ, Zhou L, Zhuang W-Q, Yu K (2019) The co-existence of anammox genera in an expanded granular sludge bed reactor with biomass carriers for nitrogen removal. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 103:1231–1242

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Yang JC, Zhang L, Xu KC, Peng YZ (2018) Using combined multiple techniques to characterize refractory organics during anammox process with mature coal chemical wastewater as influent. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25:12107–12118

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zheng BY, Zhang L, Guo JH, Zhang SJ, Yang AM, Peng YZ (2016) Suspended sludge and biofilm shaped different anammox communities in two pilot-scale one-stage anammox reactors. Bioresour Technol 211:273–279

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zhu GB, Wang SY, Ma B, Wang XX, Zhou JM, Zhao SY, Liu RP (2018) Anammox granular sludge in low-ammonium sewage treatment: not bigger size driving better performance. Water Res 142:147–158

    CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

This work was supported in part by the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant number: 51478410) and Natural Science Research of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions of China (Grant number: 19KJD610004).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Yangzhou University, No. 196 Huayang West Road, Yangzhou, 225127, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China

    Wenjing Chen, Shengdong Chen, Fan Hu & Jun Wu

  2. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, No. 1 Kerui Road, Suzhou, 215009, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China

    Wenru Liu

  3. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, No. 1239 Siping Road, Yangpu District, Shanghai, 200092, People’s Republic of China

    Dianhai Yang

Authors
  1. Wenjing Chen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Shengdong Chen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Fan Hu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Wenru Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Dianhai Yang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Jun Wu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jun Wu.

Additional information

Responsible Editor: Ta Yeong Wu

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Chen, W., Chen, S., Hu, F. et al. A novel anammox reactor with a nitrogen gas circulation: performance, granule size, activity, and microbial community. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 18661–18671 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-08432-w

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-08432-w

Keywords

Search

Navigation