Insights into the rapid start-up of an inoculated municipal sludge system: A high-height-to-diameter-ratio airlift inner-circulation partition bioreactor based on CFD analysis

Hong Chen; Chengfeng Zhang; Naif Abdullah Al-Dhabi; Sha Wu; Yangkai Liu; Lvzhou Wu; Zhe Kong; Wangwang Tang; Jing Chen; Lixiu Shi; Guina Luo

doi:10.1016/j.envres.2023.117838

Insights into the rapid start-up of an inoculated municipal sludge system: A high-height-to-diameter-ratio airlift inner-circulation partition bioreactor based on CFD analysis

Environ Res. 2024 Feb 15:243:117838. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.117838. Epub 2023 Dec 4.

Authors

Hong Chen¹, Chengfeng Zhang², Naif Abdullah Al-Dhabi³, Sha Wu², Yangkai Liu⁴, Lvzhou Wu⁵, Zhe Kong⁶, Wangwang Tang⁷, Jing Chen⁸, Lixiu Shi², Guina Luo⁵

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Water-Sediment Sciences and Water Disaster Prevention of Hunan Province, School of Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering, Changsha University of Science & Technology, Changsha, 410114, China; Institute of Eco-environment, Changsha University of Science & Technology, Changsha, 410114, China; Fujian Strait Graphene Industrial Technology Research Institute, Jinjiang, 362200, China.
² Key Laboratory of Water-Sediment Sciences and Water Disaster Prevention of Hunan Province, School of Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering, Changsha University of Science & Technology, Changsha, 410114, China; Institute of Eco-environment, Changsha University of Science & Technology, Changsha, 410114, China.
³ Department of Botany and Microbiology, College of Science, King Saud University, P. O. Box 2455, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Water-Sediment Sciences and Water Disaster Prevention of Hunan Province, School of Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering, Changsha University of Science & Technology, Changsha, 410114, China.
⁵ Fujian Strait Graphene Industrial Technology Research Institute, Jinjiang, 362200, China.
⁶ School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, 215009, China.
⁷ College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China.
⁸ Key Laboratory of Water-Sediment Sciences and Water Disaster Prevention of Hunan Province, School of Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering, Changsha University of Science & Technology, Changsha, 410114, China; Institute of Eco-environment, Changsha University of Science & Technology, Changsha, 410114, China. Electronic address: gonewiththeday@csust.edu.cn.

PMID: 38056609
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.117838

Abstract

The utilization of municipal sludge as a seed sludge for initiating the autotrophic nitrogen removal (ANR) process presents a challenge due to the negligible abundance of anaerobic ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AnAOB). Here, a computational fluid dynamics model was used to simulate sludge volume fraction and sludge particle velocity. A high-height-to-diameter-ratio airlift inner-circulation partition bioreactor (HHAIPBR) was operated for 175 d to enrich AnAOB from municipal sludge, and the performance of the ANR process was investigated. The start-up period of HHAIPBR inoculated with municipal sludge required approximately 69 d. A high nitrogen removal performance, with a mean total nitrogen removal efficiency of 82.1%, was obtained for 1 month. The simulation results validated the presence of sludge circulation and revealed the distribution characteristics of dissolved oxygen inside the reactor, further supporting the promotion of sludge granulation via the high height-to-diameter ratio. Nitrosomonas (3.31%) of Proteobacteria and Candidatus Brocadia (6.56%) of Planctomycetota were dominant in the HHAIPBR. This study presents a viable approach for the industrial cultivation of anammox sludge and the rapid start-up of the partial nitritation-anammox system.

Keywords: AnAOB; Anammox; Computational fluid dynamic (CFD); Height-to-diameter; Model; Municipal sludge.

MeSH terms

Bioreactors* / microbiology
Nitrogen
Oxidation-Reduction
Sewage* / microbiology

Substances

Sewage
Nitrogen