Insights into the effect of nitrate photolysis on short-chain fatty acids production from waste activated sludge in anaerobic fermentation system: Performance and mechanisms

Zhihong Liu; Zhixuan Cui; Zhengtong Guo; Dengfei Li; Zhangwei He; Wenzong Liu; Xiuping Yue; Aijuan Zhou

doi:10.1016/j.watres.2024.121772

Insights into the effect of nitrate photolysis on short-chain fatty acids production from waste activated sludge in anaerobic fermentation system: Performance and mechanisms

Water Res. 2024 May 13:258:121772. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2024.121772. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Zhihong Liu¹, Zhixuan Cui², Zhengtong Guo², Dengfei Li³, Zhangwei He⁴, Wenzong Liu⁵, Xiuping Yue³, Aijuan Zhou⁶

Affiliations

¹ College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, China; Shanxi Academy of Advanced Research and Innovation, Taiyuan 030024, China.
² College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, China.
³ College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, China; Shanxi-Zheda Institute of Advanced Materials and Chemical Engineering, Taiyuan, China.
⁴ School of Environment and Municipal Engineering, Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology, Shanxi 710055, China.
⁵ Civil and Environmental Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China.
⁶ College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, China; Shanxi-Zheda Institute of Advanced Materials and Chemical Engineering, Taiyuan, China. Electronic address: zhouaijuan@tyut.edu.cn.

PMID: 38761600
DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2024.121772

Abstract

Nitrate photolysis has become an efficient, low-cost and promising technology for emerging contaminants removal, while its performance and mechanism for waste activated sludge (WAS) treatment is still unknown. This study innovatively introduced nitrate photolysis for WAS disintegration, and investigated the effect of nitrate addition (150-375 mg N/L) for short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) production during anaerobic fermentation (AF). The results showed that nitrate photolysis significantly promoted the SCFAs production from WAS, and peaked at 280.7 mg/g VSS with 7-d fermentation with 150 mg N/L addition (150N-UV), which increased by 8.8-35.0 % and 10.7-23.3 % compared with other photolysis groups and sole nitrate groups. Effective release of the soluble organics was observed in the nitrate photolysis groups during AF, especially soluble proteins, reaching 1505.4 mg COD/L at 9 d in 150N-UV group, promoted by 7.0∼15.7 % than nitrate/nitrate photolysis groups. The model compounds simulation experiment further demonstrated the positive effect of nitrate photolysis on organics hydrolysis and SCFAs accumulation. The result of the radical capture and quenching verified the reactive oxygen species contributed more compared with reactive nitrogen species. Functional group analysis confirmed the effective bioconversion of the macromolecular organics during the fermentation. Moreover, the nitrate photolysis enhanced the enrichment of the functional consortia, including anaerobic fermentation bacteria (AFB), e.g., Fnoticella, Romboutsia, Gracilibacter and Sedimentibacter, and nitrate reducing bacteria (NRB), e.g., Acinerobacter and Ahniella. The macrogenetic analysis further revealed that glycolysis, amino acid metabolism, acetate metabolism and nitrogen metabolism were the dominating metabolic pathways during fermentation, and the abundance of the relevant genes were enhanced in 150N-UV group.

Keywords: Anaerobic fermentation (AF); Nitrate; Photolysis; Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs); Waste activated sludge (WAS).