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Artificial Intelligence for the Evaluation of Operational Parameters Influencing Nitrification and Nitrifiers in an Activated Sludge Process

  • Environmental Microbiology
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Abstract

Nitrification at a full-scale activated sludge plant treating municipal wastewater was monitored over a period of 237 days. A combination of fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) were used for identifying and quantifying the dominant nitrifiers in the plant. Adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS), Pearson’s correlation coefficient, and quadratic models were employed in evaluating the plant operational conditions that influence the nitrification performance. The ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) abundance was within the range of 1.55 × 108–1.65 × 1010 copies L−1, while Nitrobacter spp. and Nitrospira spp. were 9.32 × 109–1.40 × 1011 copies L−1 and 2.39 × 109–3.76 × 1010 copies L−1, respectively. Specific nitrification rate (qN) was significantly affected by temperature (r 0.726, p 0.002), hydraulic retention time (HRT) (r −0.651, p 0.009), and ammonia loading rate (ALR) (r 0.571, p 0.026). Additionally, AOB was considerably influenced by HRT (r −0.741, p 0.002) and temperature (r 0.517, p 0.048), while HRT negatively impacted Nitrospira spp. (r −0.627, p 0.012). A quadratic combination of HRT and food-to-microorganism (F/M) ratio also impacted qN (r 2 0.50), AOB (r 2 0.61), and Nitrospira spp. (r 2 0.72), while Nitrobacter spp. was considerably influenced by a polynomial function of F/M ratio and temperature (r 2 0.49). The study demonstrated that ANFIS could be used as a tool to describe the factors influencing nitrification process at full-scale wastewater treatment plants.

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Acknowledgments

The authors hereby acknowledge the Durban University of Technology and National Research Foundation for providing financial assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Water and Wastewater Technology, Durban University of Technology, Durban, 4000, South Africa

    Oluyemi Olatunji Awolusi, Mahmoud Nasr, Sheena Kumari & Faizal Bux

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  1. Oluyemi Olatunji Awolusi
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Correspondence to Faizal Bux.

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Awolusi, O.O., Nasr, M., Kumari, S. et al. Artificial Intelligence for the Evaluation of Operational Parameters Influencing Nitrification and Nitrifiers in an Activated Sludge Process. Microb Ecol 72, 49–63 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-016-0739-3

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