Bioprocess and Biosystems Engineering

, Volume 40, Issue 5, pp 731–739 | Cite as

Rapid start-up of nitrifying MBBRs at low temperatures: nitrification, biofilm response and microbiome analysis

  • Bradley Young
  • Robert Delatolla
  • Turki Abujamel
  • Kevin Kennedy
  • Edith Laflamme
  • Alain Stintzi
Research Paper
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

The moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR), operated as a post carbon removal system, requires long start-up times in comparison to carbon removal systems due to slow growing autotrophic organisms. This study investigates the use of carriers seeded in a carbon rich treatment system prior to inoculation in a nitrifying MBBR system to promote the rapid development of nitrifying biofilm in an MBBR system at temperatures between 6 and 8 °C. Results show that nitrification was initiated by the carbon removal carriers after 22 h of operation. High throughput 16S-rDNA sequencing indicates that the sloughing period was a result of heterotrophic organism detachment and the recovery and stabilization period included a growth of Nitrosomonas and Nitrospira as the dominant ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB) in the biofilm. Peripheral microorganisms such as Myxococcales, a rapid EPS producer, appear to have contributed to the recovery and stabilization of the biofilm.

Keywords

MBBR Ammonia removal System start-up Biofilm morphology Next generation sequencing 
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Notes

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the financial support from the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada and Veolia Water Technologies. The authors thank Daina Forrest, Walid Mottawea and James Butcher of the University of Ottawa for their technical support. The authors acknowledge the Saudi Arabian Cultural Bureau in Canada for scholarship contribution from King Abdulaziz University.

Supplementary material

449_2017_1739_MOESM1_ESM.docx (711 kb)
Supplementary material 1 (DOCX 710 KB)

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2017

Authors and Affiliations

  • Bradley Young
    • 1
  • Robert Delatolla
    • 1
  • Turki Abujamel
    • 2
    • 3
  • Kevin Kennedy
    • 1
  • Edith Laflamme
    • 4
  • Alain Stintzi
    • 2
  1. 1.Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of EngineeringUniversity of OttawaOttawaCanada
  2. 2.Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of MedicineOttawa Institute of Systems Biology, University of OttawaOttawaCanada
  3. 3.Department of Medical Technology, Faculty of Applied Medical SciencesKing Abdulaziz UniversityJeddahSaudi Arabia
  4. 4.Veolia Water Technologies CanadaMontrealCanada

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