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Simultaneous nitrogen and carbon removal in a packed A/O reactor: effect of C/N ratio on microbial community structure

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Abstract

In this research, a novel packed anoxic/oxic moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) was established to achieve high-organic matter removal rates, despite the carbon/nitrogen (C/N) ratio of 2.7–5.1 in the influent. Simultaneous nitrification–denitrification (SND) was investigated under a long sludge retention time of 104 days. The system exhibited excellent performance in pollutant removal, with chemical oxygen demand and total nitrogen (TN) enhanced to 93.6–97.4% and 34.4–60%, respectively. Under low C/N conditions, the nitrogen removal process of A/O MBBR system was mainly achieved by anaerobic denitrification. The increase of C/N ratio enhanced SND rate of the aerobic section, where dissolved oxygen was maintained at the range of 4–6 mg/L, and resulted in higher TN removal efficiency. The microbial composition and structures were analyzed utilizing the MiSeq Illumina sequencing technique. High-throughput pyrosequencing results indicated that the dominant microorganisms were Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes at the phylum level, which contributes to the removal of organics matters. In the aerobic section, abundances of Nitrospirae (1.12–29.33%), Burkholderiales (2.15–21.38%), and Sphingobacteriales (2.92–11.67%) rose with increasing C/N ratio in the influent, this proved that SND did occur in the aerobic zone. As the C/N ratio of influent increased, the SND phenomenon in the aerobic zone of the system is the main mechanism for greatly improving the removal rate of TN in the aerobic section. The C/N ratio in the aerobic zone is not required to be high to exhibit good TN removal performance. When C/NH4+ and C/TN in the aerobic zone were higher than 2.29 and 1.77, respectively, TN removal efficiency was higher than 60%, which means that carbon sources added to the reactor could be saved. This study would be vital for a better understanding of microbial structures within a packed A/O MBBR and the development of cost-efficient strategies for the treatment of low C/N wastewater.

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Acknowledgements

We thank colleagues and students from Fudan University for maintaining the treatment systems during the study period. The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive and positive comments. This study was financially supported by the National Major Science and Technology Program for Water Pollution Control and Treatment (Grant No. 2017ZX07602-001) and ABA chemical donation.

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  1. Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Fudan University, Room 2026, Environment Building, 2005 Songhu Road, Yangpu District, Shanghai, 200433, China

    Shuai Ding, Jian He, Xingzhang Luo & Zheng Zheng

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  1. Shuai Ding
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  2. Jian He
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Correspondence to Jian He or Xingzhang Luo.

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Ding, S., He, J., Luo, X. et al. Simultaneous nitrogen and carbon removal in a packed A/O reactor: effect of C/N ratio on microbial community structure. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 43, 1241–1252 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-020-02319-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-020-02319-3

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