Chronic effects of cerium dioxide nanoparticles on biological nitrogen removal and nitrous oxide emission: Insight into impact mechanism and performance recovery potential

Jinyu Ye; Huan Gao; Carlos Domingo-Félez; Junkang Wu; Manjun Zhan; Ran Yu; Barth F Smets

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2022.126966

Chronic effects of cerium dioxide nanoparticles on biological nitrogen removal and nitrous oxide emission: Insight into impact mechanism and performance recovery potential

Bioresour Technol. 2022 May:351:126966. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2022.126966. Epub 2022 Mar 9.

Authors

Jinyu Ye¹, Huan Gao², Carlos Domingo-Félez³, Junkang Wu⁴, Manjun Zhan⁵, Ran Yu⁶, Barth F Smets³

Affiliations

¹ School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University of Science and Technology, Hangzhou 310023, China.
² Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210096, China.
³ Department of Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, 2800, Denmark.
⁴ Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210096, China; Department of Water Supply and Drainage Science and Engineering, College of Civil Engineering, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210037, China.
⁵ Nanjing Research Institute of Environmental Protection, Nanjing Environmental Protection Bureau, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210013, China.
⁶ Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210096, China. Electronic address: yuran@seu.edu.cn.

PMID: 35278624
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2022.126966

Abstract

The influence of cerium dioxide nanoparticles (CeO₂ NPs) on biological nitrogen removal and associated nitrous oxide (N₂O) emission has seldom been addressed yet. Herein, the chronic effect of CeO₂ NPs on the nitrogen transformation processes during wastewater treatment and the impacted system's self-recovery potential after CeO₂ NP stress removal were investigated. CeO₂ NP of 10-50 mg/L induced significant declines of the ammonia nitrogen (NH₄⁺-N) and the total nitrogen removal efficiencies, but triggered the nitrite accumulation and the N₂O emission. The N₂O reductase (NOS) activity was negatively correlated with the N₂O emission level, and the inhibition of NOS activity under CeO₂ NP stress was probably due to the depressions of the sludge denitrifiers' metabolic activities. The NH₄⁺-N removal efficiency was successfully regained after the recovery period although the N₂O emission level was still higher than the pre-exposure period, which was probably due to the residual CeO₂ NPs inside the activated sludge.

Keywords: CeO(2) nanoparticle; Metabolic activity; Nitrification/denitrification; Nitrous oxide; Recovery potential.

MeSH terms

Bioreactors
Cerium
Denitrification
Nanoparticles*
Nitrification
Nitrogen / metabolism
Nitrous Oxide* / analysis
Sewage

Substances

Sewage
Cerium
ceric oxide
Nitrous Oxide
Nitrogen