Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Effect of hydraulic retention time on performance of an anoxic–aerobic sequencing batch reactor treating saline wastewater

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The effects of hydraulic retention time on the performance and microbial community structure of an anoxic–aerobic sequencing batch reactor treating saline wastewater were investigated. The average removal efficiencies of chemical oxygen demand and ammonia nitrogen decreased from 90 and 85 % to 68 and 71 % with the decrease in hydraulic retention time from 17 to 9 h, respectively. No obvious accumulation of nitrate nitrogen and nitrite nitrogen in the effluent was found. The contents of polysaccharide and protein in extracellular polymeric substances increased with the decrease in hydraulic retention time. The polysaccharide/protein ratio decreased from 1.18 to 1.11 with the decrease in hydraulic retention time from 17 to 9 h. The increase in extracellular polymeric substances with the decrease in hydraulic retention time led to the increase in sludge volume index. The specific ammonium oxidation rate, specific nitrite oxidation rate, specific nitrate reduction rate, and specific oxygen uptake rate increased with the decrease in hydraulic retention time. The diversity indices of microbial community decreased from 2.69 to 2.39 with the decrease in hydraulic retention time from 17 to 9 h. The α-proteobacteria were the dominant groups under hydraulic retention time of 17, 14, 11, and 9 h, which constituted 46, 30, 40, and 40 % of the whole microbial community, respectively.

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

  • Barr TA, Taylor JM, Duff SJB (1996) Effect of HRT, SRT and temperature on the performance of activated sludge reactors treating bleached kraft mill effluent. Water Res 30:799–810

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Boopathy R, Bonvillain C, Fontenot Q, Kilgen M (2007) Biologcial treatment of low-salinity shrimp aquaculture wastewater using sequencing batch reactor. Int Biodeterior Biodegrad 59(1):16–19

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Campos J, Mosquera-Corral A, Sánchez M, Méndez R, Lema J (2002) Nitrification in saline wastewater with high ammonia concentration in an activated sludge unit. Water Res 36(10):2555–2560

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chang IS, Lee CH (1998) Membrane filtration characteristics in membrane-coupled activated sludge system-the effect of physiological states of activated sludge on membrane fouling. Desalination 120:221–233

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chen H, Zhou SG, Li TH (2010) Impact of extracellular polymeric substances on the settlement ability of aerobic granular sludge. Environ Technol 31:1601–1612

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chinese NEPA (2002) Water and wastewater monitoring methods, 4th edn. Chinese Environmental Science Publishing House, Beijing

    Google Scholar 

  • Chistoserdova L, Lapidus A, Han C, Goodwin L, Saunders L, Brettin T, Tapia R, Gilna P, Lucas S, Richardson PM, Lidstrom ME (2007) Genome of Methylobacillus flagellatus, molecular basis for obligate methylotrophy, and polyphyletic origin of methylotrophy. J Bacteriol 189:4020–4027

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Dan NP, Visvanathan C, Basu B (2003) Comparative evaluation of yeast and bacterial treatment of high salinity wastewater based on biokinetic coefficients. Bioresour Technol 87:51–56

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • de-Bashan LE, Moreno M, Hernandez JP, Bashan Y (2002) Removal of ammonium and phosphorus ions from synthetic wastewater by the microalgae Chlorella vulgaris coimmobilized in alginate beads with the microalgae growth-promoting bacterium Azospirillum brasilense. Water Res 36:2941–2948

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Dubois M, Gilles KA, Hamilton JK, Rebers PA, Smith F (1956) Colorimetric method for determination of sugars and related substance. Anal Chem 28:350–356

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Durai G, Rajasimman M, Rajamohan N (2011) Aerobic digestion of tannery wastewater in a sequential batch reactor by salt-tolerant bacterial strains. Appl Water Sci 1:35–40

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Felsenstein J (1985) Confidence limits on phylogenies: an approach using the bootstrap. Evolution 39:783–791

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fontenot Q, Bonvillain C, Kilgen M, Boopathy R (2007) Effects of temperature, salinity, and carbon: nitrogen ratio on sequencing batch reactor treating shrimp aquaculture wastewater. Bioresour Technol 98(9):1700–1703

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gebauer R (2004) Mesophilic anaerobic treatment of sludge from saline fish farm effluents with biogas production. Bioresour Technol 93(2):155–167

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Han H, Zhang YY, Cui CC, Zheng SK (2010) Effect of COD level and HRT on microbial community in a yeast-predominant activated sludge system. Bioresour Technol 101:3463–3465

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hu Z, Zhang J, Xie HJ, Li SP, Wang JH, Zhang TT (2011) Effect of anoxic/aerobic phase fraction on N2O emission in a sequencing batch reactor under low temperature. Bioresour Technol 102:5486–5491

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hwang JH, Cicek N, Oleszkiewicz JA (2009) Inorganic precipitation during autotrophic denitrification under various operating conditions. Environ Technol 30:1475–1485

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Isaka K, Kimura Y, Yamamoto T, Osaka T, Tsuneda S (2013) Complete autotrophic denitrification in a single reactor using nitritation and anammox gel carriers. Bioresour Technol 147:96–101

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jang D, Hwang Y, Shin H, Lee W (2013) Effects of salinity on the characteristics of biomass and membrane fouling in membrane bioreactors. Bioresour Technol 141:50–56. doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2013.02.062

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jørgensen KS, Pauli ASL (1995) Polyphosphate accumulation among denitrifying bacteria in activated sludge. Anaerobe 1:161–168

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jørgensen NOG, Brandt KK, Nybroe O, Hanse M (2009) Delftia lacustris sp. nov., a peptidoglycan-degrading bacterium from fresh water, and emended description of Delftia tsuruhatensis as a peptidoglycan-degrading bacterium. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 59:2195–2199

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kapdan IK (2005) Kinetic analysis of dyestuff and COD removal from synthetic wastewater in an anaerobic packed column reactor. Process Biochem 40:2545–2550

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kargi F, Uygur A (2003) Nutrient removal performance of a five-step sequencing batch reactor as a function of wastewater composition. Process Biochem 38:1039–1045

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kim BY, Weon HY, Yoo SH, Kwon SW, Cho YH, Stackebrandt E, Go SJ (2006) Paracoccus homiensis sp. nov., isolated from a sea-sand sample. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 56:2387–2390

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kim YM, Park DH, Jeon CO, Lee DS, Park JM (2008) Effect of HRT on the biological pre-denitrification process for the simultaneous removal of toxic pollutants from cokes wastewater. Bioresour Technol 99:8824–8832

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kumar S, Tamura K, Nei M (2004) MEGA3: integrated software for molecular evolutionary genetics analysis and sequence alignment. Brief Bioinform 5:150–163

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lai Q, Qiao N, Wu C, Sun F, Yuan J, Shao Z (2010) Stappia indica sp. nov., isolated from deep seawater of the Indian Ocean. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 60:733–736

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lefebvre O, Moletta R (2006) Treatment of organic pollution in industrial saline wastewater: a literature review. Water Res 40:3671–3682

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lefebvre O, Vasudevan N, Torrijos M, Thanasekaran K, Moletta R (2005) Halophilic biological treatment of tannery soak liquor in a sequencing batch reactor. Water Res 39:1471–1480

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Li XY, Yang SF (2007) Influnce of loosely bound extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) on the flocculation, sedmentation and dewaterability. Water Res 41:1022–1230

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Li HY, Zhang Y, Yang M, Kamagata Y (2013) Effects of hydraulic retention time on nitrification activities and population dynamics of a conventional activated sludge system. Front Environ Sci Eng 7:43–48

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lowery OH, Rosebrough NJ, Farr AL, Randall RJ (1951) Protein measurement with the Folin phrnol reagent. J Biol Chem 193:265–275

    Google Scholar 

  • Moussa MS, Hooijmans CM, Lubberding HJ, Gijzen HJ, van Loosdrecht MCM (2005) Modelling nitrification, heterotrophic growth and predation in activated sludge. Water Res 39:5080–5098

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Moussavi G, Barikbin B, Mahmoudi M (2010) The removal of high concentrations of phenol from saline wastewater using aerobic granular SBR. Chem Eng J 158(3):498–504

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Muda K, Aris A, Salim MR, Ibrahim Z, van Loosdrecht MCM, Ahmad A, Nawahwi MZ (2011) The effect of hydraulic retention time on granular sludge biomass in treating textile wastewater. Water Res 45:4711–4721

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Muyzer G, de Waal EC, Uitterlinden AG (1993) Profiling of complex microbial populations by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis analysis of polymerase chain reaction-amplified genes coding for 16S rDNA. Appl Environ Microbiol 59:695–700

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ng HY, Ong SL, Ng WJ (2005) Effects of sodium chloride on the performance of a sequencing batch reactor. J Environ Eng 131:1557–1564

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Onyenwoke RU, Kevbrin VV, Lysenko AM, Wiegel J (2007) Thermoanaerobacter pseudethanolicus sp. nov., a thermophilic heterotrophic anaerobe from Yellowstone National Park. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 57:2191–2193

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Panswad T, Anan C (1999) Impact of high chloride wastewater on an anaerobic/anoxic/aerobic process with and without inoculation of chloride acclimated seeds. Water Res 33(5):1165–1172

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Park SJ, Lee TW, Yoon TI (2004) Production of extracellular polymeric substances in anoxic/oxic process with zeolite carriers for nitrogen removal. Biotechnol Lett 26:1653–1657

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rene ER, Kim SJ, Park HS (2008) Effect of COD/N ratio and salinity on the performance of sequencing batch reactors. Bioresour Technol 99:839–846

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Saitou N, Nei M (1987) The neighbor-joining method-a new method for reconstructing phylogenetic trees. Mol Biol Evol 4:406–425

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Shannon CE, Weaver W (1949) The mathematical theory of communication. University of Illinois Press, Urbana

    Google Scholar 

  • Sheng GP, Yu HQ, Li XY (2010) Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) of microbial aggregates in biological wastewater treatment systems: a review. Biotechnol Adv 28:882–894

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Shi BH, Arunpairojana V, Palakawong S, Yokota A (2002) Tistrella mobilis gen nov, sp nov, a novel polyhydroxyalkanoate-producing bacterium belonging to α-Proteobacteria. J Gen Appl Microbiol 48:335–343

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Shi K, Zhou WZ, Zhao HX, Zhang YZ (2012) Performance of halophilic marine bacteria inocula on nutrient removal from hypersaline wastewater in an intermittently aerated biological filter. Bioresour Technol 113:280–287

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wang X, Zeng RJ, Dai Y, Peng Y, Yuan Z (2008) The denitrification capability of cluster 1 Defluviicoccus vanus-related glycogen-accumulating organisms. Biotechnol Bioeng 99:1329–1336

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wang Y, Peng Y, Stephenson T (2009) Effect of influent nutrient ratios and hydraulic retention time (HRT) on simultaneous phosphorus and nitrogen removal in a two-sludge sequencing batch reactor process. Bioresour Technol 100:3506–3512

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Xie CH, Yokota A (2006) Reclassification of [Flavobacterium] ferrugineum as Terrimonas ferruginea gen. nov., comb. nov., and description of Terrimonas lutea sp. nov., isolated from soil. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 56:1117–1121

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Yang HJ, Shao P, Lu TM, Shen JQ, Wang DF, Xu ZN, Yuan X (2006) Continuous bio-hydrogen production from citric acid wastewater via facultative anaerobic bacteria. Int J Hydrogen Energy 31:1306–1313

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang XQ, Bishop PL (2001) Spatial distribution of extracellular polymeric substances in biofilms. J Environ Eng 127:850–856

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang ZP, Show KY, Tay JH, Liang DT, Lee DL, Jiang WJ (2006) Effect of hydraulic retention time on biohydrogen production and anaerobic microbial community. Process Biochem 41:2118–2123

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang ZJ, Chen SH, Wang SM, Luo HY (2011) Characterization of extracellular polymeric substances from biofilm in the process of starting-up a partial nitrification process under salt stress. Appl Microbiol Biotech 89:1563–1571

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51178437).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Lab of Marine Environment and Ecology, Ministry of Education, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, 266100, People’s Republic of China

    Z. C. Wang, M. C. Gao, Y. Ren, Z. L. She, C. J. Jin, J. Zhang & N. Yang

  2. College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Ocean University of China, No. 238 Songling Road, Qingdao, 266100, Shandong Province, People’s Republic of China

    M. C. Gao, Z. Wang, Q. B. Chang & C. Q. Sun

Authors
  1. Z. C. Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. M. C. Gao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Y. Ren
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Z. Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Z. L. She
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. C. J. Jin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Q. B. Chang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. C. Q. Sun
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. J. Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. N. Yang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to M. C. Gao.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Wang, Z.C., Gao, M.C., Ren, Y. et al. Effect of hydraulic retention time on performance of an anoxic–aerobic sequencing batch reactor treating saline wastewater. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 12, 2043–2054 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-014-0594-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-014-0594-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation