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Reject water treatment by improvement of whole cell anammox entrapment using polyvinyl alcohol/alginate gel

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Abstract

Reject water treatment performance was investigated by whole cell anammox sludge entrapped polyvinyl alcohol/sodium alginate gel in the stirred tank reactor (STR). The whole experiment was conducted through Phase 1 and Phase 2 in which synthetic wastewater and modified reject water were used as feeding medium, respectively. The anammox reactor demonstrated quick start-up after 22 days as well as stable and relatively high nitrogen removal rate of more than 8.0 kg-N m−3 day−1 during the two both phases even under moderately low temperature of 25 ± 0.5°C during the last 2 months of Phase 2. The matured brownish red PVA beads had good characteristics with buoyant density of 1.10 g cm−3, settling velocity of 141 m h−1 and diameter of 4 mm. The bacterial community was identified by 16S rDNA analysis revealing the concurrent existence of KSU-1 and new kind anammox bacterium Kumadai-I after changing influent from synthetic wastewater to reject water. It was speculated that Kumadai-I might play a role as “promotion” factor together with KSU-1 on high nitrogen removal rate. These results demonstrate the potential application of whole cell anammox entrapment by PVA/alginate gel for achieving stable and high-rate nitrogen removal from high ammonium with low C/N ratio contained wastewaters, such as reject water, digester liquor or landfill leachate.

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Acknowledgment

We would like to thank Kuraray Co. Ltd (Osaka, Japan) for their PVA material supply.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Science and Technology (GSST), Kumamoto University, 2-39-1 Kurokami, Kumamoto, 860-8555, Japan

    Lai Minh Quan, Do Phuong Khanh, Daisuke Hira & Kenji Furukawa

  2. Department of Applied Life Science, Faculty of Biotechnology and Life Science, Sojo University, 4-22-1 Ikeda, Kumamoto, 860-0082, Japan

    Takao Fujii

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  1. Lai Minh Quan
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  2. Do Phuong Khanh
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  3. Daisuke Hira
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  4. Takao Fujii
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  5. Kenji Furukawa
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Correspondence to Lai Minh Quan.

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Quan, L.M., Khanh, D.P., Hira, D. et al. Reject water treatment by improvement of whole cell anammox entrapment using polyvinyl alcohol/alginate gel. Biodegradation 22, 1155–1167 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10532-011-9471-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10532-011-9471-3

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