Impact of solids residence time on community structure and nutrient dynamics of mixed phototrophic wastewater treatment systems

Bradley, Ian; Sevillano-Rivera, Maria C.; Pinto, Ameet J.; Guest, Jeremy S.

doi:10.1016/j.watres.2018.11.065

Cited by 30 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 71 publications

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“…Therefore, cyanobacteria, particularly the most dominant genera Limnothrix (in AB 1 ) and Kamptonema (in AB 2 ), were supposed to play a crucial role in mDON reduction. Although a better TDN removal performance with a higher algal abundance was recently reported, the present study was the first to propose cyanobacteria’s positive role in minimizing the mDON concentration.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 48%

Algae Biofilm Reduces Microbe-Derived Dissolved Organic Nitrogen Discharges: Performance and Mechanisms

Lin

Wang

et al. 2021

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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Microbe-derived dissolved organic nitrogen (mDON) can readily induce harmful phytoplankton blooms, and thus, restricting its discharges is necessary. Recently, algae biofilm (AB) has attracted increasing interest for its advantages in nutrient recovery. However, its features in mDON control remain unexplored. Herein, AB's mDON formation and utilization performance, molecular characteristics, and metabolic traits have been investigated, with activated sludge (AS) as the benchmark for comparisons. Comparatively, AB reduced mDON formation by 83% when fed with DON-free wastewater. When fed with AS's effluent, it consumed at least 72% of the exogenous mDON and notably reduced the amount of protein/amino sugar-like compounds. Irrespective of the influent, AB ultimately produced more various unsaturated hydrocarbon and lignin analogues. Redundancy and network analysis highlighted the algal−bacterial synergistic effects exemplified by cross-feeding in reducing mDON concentrations and shaping mDON pools. Moreover, metagenomics-based metabolic reconstruction revealed that cyanobacteria Limnothrix and Kamptonema spp. facilitated mDON uptake, ammonification, and recycling, which supplied the extensive nitrogen assimilatory demand for amino acids, vitamins, and cofactors biosynthesis, and therefore promoted mDON scavenging. Our findings demonstrate that regardless of the secondary or tertiary process, cyanobacteria-dominated AB is promising to minimize bioavailable mDON discharges, which has implications for future eutrophication control.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 48%

Algae Biofilm Reduces Microbe-Derived Dissolved Organic Nitrogen Discharges: Performance and Mechanisms

Lin

Wang

et al. 2021

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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“…In addition to the optimization of HRT and solids residence time (SRT), which influence carbohydrate and lipid stores over long-term cycles, an understanding of diel variation (i.e., 24 h differences between light/dark cycles) is key to optimizing performance as phototrophs accumulate carbon during periods of light in order to maintain growth in the night and experience maximum carbon storage 1–2 h prior to end of the light phase . Nutrient removal via biomass assimilation and total carbon production have also been shown to vary with growth rate and microalgal community structure . These two factors (growth rate and community structure) can be manipulated by varying the biomass age or SRT, a core operational parameter that WRRF operators use to control microbial growth rate (net growth is inversely proportional to SRT), community structure (e.g., SRT is often used to prevent or encourage the proliferation of nitrifiers in activated sludge systems), and overall system performance (e.g., contaminant removal).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A fundamental understanding of how process design and operational parameters (SRT, in particular) influence community structure, biochemical composition, and 24 h performance is key to designing reliable systems that achieve target productivities while generating tailor-made algal biomass for downstream biorefineries . While HRT and SRT have been previously shown to be powerful tools in increasing community richness and diversity as well as growth and nutrient uptake, − their effects on biomass composition and fuel potential are not well understood.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The objective of this work was to examine the effect of SRT on carbon storage dynamics over 24 h and long-term timescales (i.e., 75+ days of continuous operation) and the algae-derived fuel potential (as energy yield and cost) of the generated biomass. Mixed communities were cultivated at different SRTs under nutrient-replete conditions (reactor concentrations typically >5 mg-N·L –1 and >5 mg-P·L –1 , as shown in Bradley et al …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Finally, experimental results were used to calculate the biofuel potential of the cultivated communities across SRTs and to determine recommendations to optimize algal-based nutrient removal and algae feedstock generation from wastewater. While this study examines the effect of SRT on carbon accumulation, cultivation, and biofuel cost, the effects of SRT on community structure and nutrient removal have been reported elsewhere …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Solids Residence Time Impacts Carbon Dynamics and Bioenergy Feedstock Potential in Phototrophic Wastewater Treatment Systems

Bradley

Guest

2021

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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The use of wastewater-grown microalgae has the potential to reduce the cost of algae-derived biofuels while simultaneously advancing nutrient recovery at water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs). However, a significant barrier has been the low yield and high protein content of phototrophic biomass. Here, we examine the use of solids residence time (SRT) as a selective pressure in driving biochemical composition, yield, biofuel production, and WRRF nutrient management cost. We cultivated mixed phototrophic communities in controlled, laboratory-scale photobioreactors on the local WRRF secondary effluent to link SRT with biochemical composition and techno-economic analysis to yield insights into biomass composition and downstream processing effects on minimum fuel selling price. SRT significantly impacted biochemical composition, with total and dynamic carbohydrates the highest at low SRT (total carbohydrates being 0.60 and 0.32 mg-carbohydrate·mg-protein–1 at SRT 5 and 15 days, respectively). However, there were distinct differences between extant, steady-state performance and intrinsic potential, and longer SRT communities were able to accumulate significant fractions (51% on an ash-free dry weight basis, AFDW %) of carbohydrate reserves under nutrient starvation. Overall, hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) was found to be more suitable than lipid extraction for hydrotreating (LEH) and combined algal processing (CAP) for conversion of biomass to fuels, but LEH and CAP became more competitive when intrinsic carbon storage potential was realized. The results suggest that the use of algae for nutrient recovery could reduce the nutrient management cost at WRRFs through revenue from algal biofuels, with HTL resulting in a net revenue.

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Bioremediation Approaches for Genomic Microalgal Applications in Wastewater Treatment

Nirmala¹,

Dawn²,

Arun³

2023

Genomics Approach to Bioremediation

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Impact of solids residence time on community structure and nutrient dynamics of mixed phototrophic wastewater treatment systems

Cited by 30 publications

References 71 publications

Algae Biofilm Reduces Microbe-Derived Dissolved Organic Nitrogen Discharges: Performance and Mechanisms

Algae Biofilm Reduces Microbe-Derived Dissolved Organic Nitrogen Discharges: Performance and Mechanisms

Solids Residence Time Impacts Carbon Dynamics and Bioenergy Feedstock Potential in Phototrophic Wastewater Treatment Systems

Bioremediation Approaches for Genomic Microalgal Applications in Wastewater Treatment

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