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Enhanced nitrogen removal from low-temperature wastewater by an iterative screening of cold-tolerant denitrifying bacteria

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Abstract

The biological process to remove nitrogen in winter effluent is often seriously compromised due to the effect of low temperatures (< 13 °C) on the metabolic activity of microorganisms. In this study, a novel heterotrophic nitrifying-aerobic denitrifying bacterium with cold tolerance was isolated by iterative domestication and named Moraxella sp. LT-01. The LT-01 maintained almost 60% of its maximal growth activity at 10 °C. Under initial concentrations of 100 mg/L, the removal efficiencies of ammonium, nitrate, nitrite by LT-01 were 70.3%, 65.4%, 61.7% respectively for 72 h incubation at 10 °C. Nitrogen balance analysis showed that about 46% of TN was released as gases and 16% of TN was assimilated for cell growth. The biomarker genes involved in nitrification and denitrification pathways were identified by gene-specific PCR and revealed that the LT-01 has nitrite reductase (NirS) but not hydroxylamine reductase (HAO), which implies the involvement of other genes in the process. The study indicates that LT-01 has the potential for use in low-temperature regions for efficient sewage treatment.

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source: sodium citrate (SC), sodium acetate (SA), sucrose (Suc), glucose (Glu) and sodium succinate (SS); d Substrate concentration: 20, 50, 100, 200, 500 mg/L; e DO: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 mg/L

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Key R&D Program Project of Zhejiang Province, China (Grant 2020C02009).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental and Resource, Zhejiang A and F University, Hangzhou, 311300, China

    Jin Qu & Zhanwang Zheng

  2. College of Agricultural and Food Sciences, Zhejiang A and F University, Hangzhou, 311300, China

    Peng Jin

  3. Zhejiang Shuangliang Sunda Environment Co., LTD, Hangzhou, 310000, China

    Ruojin Zhao, Yinyan Chen, Yiyi Li & Zhanwang Zheng

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Qu, J., Zhao, R., Chen, Y. et al. Enhanced nitrogen removal from low-temperature wastewater by an iterative screening of cold-tolerant denitrifying bacteria. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 45, 381–390 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-021-02668-7

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