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Bioaugmentation mitigates ammonia and hydrogen sulfide emissions during the mixture compost of dewatered sewage sludge and reed straw

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Abstract

This study investigated the effectiveness of bio-augmenting aerobic cell culture to mitigate ammonia and hydrogen sulfide emission in sewage sludge composting amended with reed straw (with the weight ratio of 1:0.3–0.4). During the 20-day aerated lab-scale composting, adding 200-mL culture (56.80 NTU) reduced ammonia and hydrogen sulfide emissions by 38.00% and 54.32%, and conserved total nitrogen and sulfate by 39.42% and 70.75%, respectively. Organic matters degradation was quick started 1 day ahead. Comparing to the control, nitrate content increased 38.75% at the end of the compost. Bioaugmentation evened the distributions of bacterial communities in the thermophilic phase. The shift was mainly due to 22.97% of relative abundance of Proteobacteria depressed and 157.16% of Bacteroidetes increased, which were beneficial for nitrogen conservation and glycan breakdown, respectively. In summary, the results demonstrated that bioaugmentation addition could be an effective strategy for enhanced sludge composting.

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Acknowledgements

We appreciate Liu Bingtao for the help and suggestions to improve the manuscript.

Availability of data and materials

All data generated or analyzed in the current study was included in this article.

Funding

This work was financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Henan Province [grant number 182300410165] and Ph.D. Science Foundation of North China University of Water Resources and Electric Power [grant number 201901002].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, North China University of Water Resources and Electric Power, No. 36, Beihuan Road, Zhengzhou, 450045, Henan, China

    Qingli Cheng, Longlong Zhang, Dawei Wang & Bochao Niu

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  1. Qingli Cheng
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  2. Longlong Zhang
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  3. Dawei Wang
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  4. Bochao Niu
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Contributions

Cheng Qingli, Zhang Longlong, and Wang Dawei contributed to the conception and design of this study. All authors took part in the whole composting process. Parameters were measured by Zhang Longlong, Wang Dawei, and Niu Bochao and analyzed by Cheng Qingli and Zhang Longlong. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Cheng Qingli and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Qingli Cheng.

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Cheng, Q., Zhang, L., Wang, D. et al. Bioaugmentation mitigates ammonia and hydrogen sulfide emissions during the mixture compost of dewatered sewage sludge and reed straw. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 68487–68497 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15446-5

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