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Applicability of one-stage partial nitritation and anammox in MBBR for anaerobically pre-treated municipal wastewater

  • Environmental Microbiology
  • Published:
Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology

Abstract

Energy consumption of municipal wastewater treatment plants can be reduced by the anaerobic pre-treatment of the main wastewater stream. After this pre-treatment, nitrogen can potentially be removed by partial nitritation and anammox (PN/A). Currently, the application of PN/A is limited to nitrogen-rich streams (>500 mg L−1) and temperatures 25–35 °C. But, anaerobically pretreated municipal wastewater is characterized by much lower nitrogen concentrations (20–100 mg L−1) and lower temperatures (10–25 °C). We operated PN/A under similar conditions: total ammonium nitrogen concentration 50 mg L−1 and lab temperature (22 °C). PN/A was operated for 342 days in a 4 L moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR). At 0.4 mg O2 L−1, nitrogen removal rate 33 g N m−3 day−1 and 80 % total nitrogen removal efficiency was achieved. The capacity of the reactor was limited by low AOB activity. We observed significant anammox activity (40 g N m−3 day−1) even at 12 °C, improving the applicability of PN/A for municipal wastewater treatment.

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Acknowledgments

Financial support from specific university research (MSMT No 20/2015) is greatly acknowledged. The authors also wish to thank Jakub Hejnic for support with laboratory procedures and the company MEMSEP (especially Mr. Tomáš Láska) for providing the carriers from AnitaMOX® pilot plant.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Water Technology and Environmental Engineering, University of Chemistry and Technology Prague, Technicka 5, 166 28, Prague, Czech Republic

    Vojtech Kouba, L. Chovancova, P. Jenicek & J. Bartacek

  2. Université catholique de Lille, 60 Boulevard Vauban, 59800, Lille, France

    P. Widiayuningrum

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  1. Vojtech Kouba
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  2. P. Widiayuningrum
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  3. L. Chovancova
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Correspondence to Vojtech Kouba.

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Funding

This study was funded by specific university research (Grant Number MSMT No 20/2015).

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Vojtech Kouba declares that he has no conflict of interest. Patria Widiayuningrum declares that she has no conflict of interest. Lucie Chovancova declares that she has no conflict of interest. Pavel Jenicek declares that he has no conflict of interest. Jan Bartacek declares that he has no conflict of interest.

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Kouba, V., Widiayuningrum, P., Chovancova, L. et al. Applicability of one-stage partial nitritation and anammox in MBBR for anaerobically pre-treated municipal wastewater. J Ind Microbiol Biotechnol 43, 965–975 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10295-016-1766-2

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