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Performance of Paracoccus pantotrophus MA3 in heterotrophic nitrification–anaerobic denitrification using formic acid as a carbon source

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Abstract

Excess amount of nitrogen in wastewater has caused serious concerns, such as water eutrophication. Paracoccus pantotrophus MA3, a novel isolated strain of heterotrophic nitrification–anaerobic denitrification bacteria, was evaluated for nitrogen removal using formic acid as the sole carbon source. The results showed that the maximum ammonium removal efficiency was observed under the optimum conditions of 26.25 carbon to nitrogen ratio, 3.39% (v/v) inoculation amount, 34.64 °C temperature, and at 180 rpm shaking speed, respectively. In addition, quantitative real-time PCR technique analysis assured that the gene expression level of formate dehydrogenase, formate tetrahydrofolate ligase, 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase, serine hydroxymethyltransferase, respiratory nitrate reductase beta subunit, L-glutamine synthetase, glutamate dehydrogenase, and glutamate synthase were up-regulated compared to the control group, and combined with nitrogen mass balance analysis to conclude that most of the ammonium was removed by assimilation. A small amount of nitrate and nearly no nitrite were accumulated during heterotrophic nitrification. MA3 exhibited significant denitrification potential under anaerobic conditions with a maximum nitrate removal rate of 4.39 mg/L/h, and the only gas produced was N2. Additionally, 11.50 ± 0.06 mg/L/h of NH4+-N removal rate from biogas slurry was achieved.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Programs of China (2018YFA090048), the National Natural Science Foundation Program of China (No. 31972611), and the Central Universities Fundamental Research Funds (No. 2662020GXPY006). The authors would like to thank Dr. Nirmal Ghimire for his help in the revision process.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Engineering, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China

    Qun Huang, Ahmed Alengebawy, Jiahao Guo & Ping Ai

  2. Tianjin Key Laboratory for Industrial Biological, Systems and Bioprocessing Engineering, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 32, West Seven Road, Airport Economic District, Tianjin, China

    Qun Huang, Xiangyu Zhu, Amin Farrukh Raza, Limei Chen, Wuxi Chen & Demao Li

  3. National Innovation Centre for Synthetic Biology, Tianjin, China

    Qun Huang, Xiangyu Zhu, Amin Farrukh Raza, Limei Chen, Wuxi Chen & Demao Li

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Huang, Q., Alengebawy, A., Zhu, X. et al. Performance of Paracoccus pantotrophus MA3 in heterotrophic nitrification–anaerobic denitrification using formic acid as a carbon source. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 45, 1661–1672 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-022-02771-3

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