Response of partial nitritation and denitrification processes to high levels of free ammonia in a pilot mature landfill leachate treatment system: Stability and microbial community dynamics

Yonggan Li; Zhenguo Chen; Yangzhong Zhang; Zhiyu Wang; Chuchu Zhang; Zexi Deng; Linxiang Huang; Xiaojun Wang; Junhao Fan; Songwei Zhou

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2023.129571

Response of partial nitritation and denitrification processes to high levels of free ammonia in a pilot mature landfill leachate treatment system: Stability and microbial community dynamics

Bioresour Technol. 2023 Nov:387:129571. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2023.129571. Epub 2023 Jul 27.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China; The Key Lab of Pollution Control and Ecosystem Restoration in Industry Clusters, Ministry of Education, China.
² School of Environment, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China.
³ School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China; The Key Lab of Pollution Control and Ecosystem Restoration in Industry Clusters, Ministry of Education, China; Hua an Biotech Co., Ltd., Foshan 528300, China. Electronic address: cexjwang@scut.edu.cn.
⁴ Hua an Biotech Co., Ltd., Foshan 528300, China.

PMID: 37506935
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2023.129571

Abstract

The high levels of free ammonia (FA) challenge the application of partial nitritation (PN) and denitrification (DN) in the treatment of ammonia-rich wastewater. This study explored the impact of high levels of FA on the PN and DN stability and microbial community dynamics. By reducing reflux and increasing influent load, the concentrations of FA in PN and DN reactors increased from 28.9 mg/L and 140.0 mg/L to 1099.8 mg/L and 868.4 mg/L, respectively. During this process, the performance of PN and DN remained stable. The microbial analysis revealed that the Nitrosomonas exhibited strong tolerance to high levels of FA, and its relative abundance was positively correlated with amoABC (R² 0.984) and hao (R² 0.999) genes. The increase in microbial diversity could enhance the resistance ability of PN against the FA impact. In contrast, high levels of FA had scant influence on the microbial community and performance of DN.

Keywords: Ammonia-rich wastewater treatment; FA impact; Functional gene; Microbial community structure; Pilot plant.

MeSH terms

Ammonia
Bioreactors
Denitrification
Microbiota*
Nitrogen
Water Pollutants, Chemical*

Substances

Ammonia
Water Pollutants, Chemical
Nitrogen