Quantitative and qualitative studies of microorganisms involved in full‐scale autotrophic nitrogen removal performance

Abstract

Autotrophic nitrogen removal systems have been implemented at full-scale and provide an efficient way for nitrogen removal from industrial and urban wastewaters. Our study present qualitative and quantitative analysis of archaeal and bacterial amoA genes and Candidatus Brocadiales bacteria analyzed in six full-scale autotrophic nitrogen removal bioreactors. The results showed that ammonium oxidizing bacteria (AOB) were detected in all bioreactors. However, ammonium oxidizing archaea (AOA) were detected only in the non-aerated technologies. Conversely, different Candidatus Brocadiales phylotypes appeared due to differences in influent wastewater composition and hydraulic retention time (HRT). In the same terms multivariate redundancy analysis confirmed that AOA was positively correlated with temperature, ammonium concentration and low HRT. However, AOB population was positively correlated with pH, temperature, and dissolved oxygen concentration. Our data suggested a correlation between the microorganisms involved in the nitrogen removal performance and the operational conditions in the different full-scale bioreactors.

Microbial Ecology of Granular Biofilm Technologies for Wastewater Treatment: A Review

“…In fact, that allows them to adapt to extremely low electron donor/acceptor conditions, which indicates that AOA outcompete AOB for ammonia and oxygen under low ammonium and DO conditions [ 133 ]. The affinity for an electron donor of Nitrosopumilus maritimus is higher than that of N. europaea [ 127 ]; however, in anammox systems in which the ammonia concentration was high, the AOA community was negatively correlated with it [ 134 ]. Some organic products such as succinate, pyruvate, and malate could accelerate the growth of this group because they act by detoxifying hydrogen peroxide generated in the ammonia oxidation metabolism [ 135 ].…”

Selective aqueous ammonia sensors using electrochemical stripping and capacitive detection

“…Excessive nitrogen discharges from wastewater to environmental waters cause harmful algal blooms that endanger aquatic ecosystems in 70% of surface inland waters in the United States. [1][2][3] These harmful algal blooms can overconsume dissolved oxygen and cause disruptive dead zones, such as the perennial dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico that is the largest in the world (over 22,000 km 2 in 2017). 4,5 Total dissolved ammonia nitrogen (TAN, sum of ammonium ion, NH 4 + , and aqueous ammonia, NH 3 ) is one of the most common pollutants discharged in surface waters, as well as a key component of managing the nitrogen cycle, one of the most difficult environmental problems in the 21st century.…”

“…Excessive nitrogen discharges from wastewater to environmental waters cause harmful algal blooms that endanger aquatic ecosystems in 70% of surface inland waters in the United States 1–3 . These harmful algal blooms can overconsume dissolved oxygen and cause disruptive dead zones, such as the perennial dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico that is the largest in the world (over 22,000 km 2 in 2017) 4,5 .…”