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One-stage partial nitritation/anammox at 15 °C on pretreated sewage: feasibility demonstration at lab-scale

  • Environmental biotechnology
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Abstract

Energy-positive sewage treatment can be achieved by implementation of oxygen-limited autotrophic nitrification/denitrification (OLAND) in the main water line, as the latter does not require organic carbon and therefore allows maximum energy recovery through anaerobic digestion of organics. To test the feasibility of mainstream OLAND, the effect of a gradual temperature decrease from 29 to 15 °C and a chemical oxygen demand (COD)/N increase from 0 to 2 was tested in an OLAND rotating biological contactor operating at 55–60 mg NH4 +–N L−1 and a hydraulic retention time of 1 h. Moreover, the effect of the operational conditions and feeding strategies on the reactor cycle balances, including NO and N2O emissions were studied in detail. This study showed for the first time that total nitrogen removal rates of 0.5 g N L−1 day−1 can be maintained when decreasing the temperature from 29 to 15 °C and when low nitrogen concentration and moderate COD levels are treated. Nitrite accumulation together with elevated NO and N2O emissions (5 % of N load) were needed to favor anammox compared with nitratation at low free ammonia (<0.25 mg N L−1), low free nitrous acid (<0.9 μg N L−1), and higher DO levels (3–4 mg O2 L−1). Although the total nitrogen removal rates showed potential, the accumulation of nitrite and nitrate resulted in lower nitrogen removal efficiencies (around 40 %), which should be improved in the future. Moreover, a balance should be found in the future between the increased NO and N2O emissions and a decreased energy consumption to justify OLAND mainstream treatment.

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Acknowledgments

H.D.C. received a Ph.D. grant from the Institute for the Promotion of Innovation by Science and Technology in Flanders (IWT-Vlaanderen, SB-81068), and S.E.V. was supported as a postdoctoral fellow from the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO-Vlaanderen). The authors gratefully thank Aquafin for providing the sewage, Eva Spieck for providing the qPCR standards, and Tom Hennebel, Joachim Desloover, and Simon De Corte for inspiring scientific discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Microbial Ecology and Technology (LabMET), Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, 9000, Gent, Belgium

    Haydée De Clippeleir, Siegfried E. Vlaeminck, Fabian De Wilde, Katrien Daeninck, Mariela Mosquera, Willy Verstraete & Nico Boon

  2. Laboratory of Applied Physical Chemistry (ISOFYS), Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, 9000, Gent, Belgium

    Pascal Boeckx

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  1. Haydée De Clippeleir
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  2. Siegfried E. Vlaeminck
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Correspondence to Nico Boon.

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De Clippeleir, H., Vlaeminck, S.E., De Wilde, F. et al. One-stage partial nitritation/anammox at 15 °C on pretreated sewage: feasibility demonstration at lab-scale. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 97, 10199–10210 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-013-4744-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-013-4744-x

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