Potential application of Alcaligenes faecalis strain No. 4 in mitigating ammonia emissions from dairy wastewater

George M Neerackal; Pius M Ndegwa; Hung-Soo Joo; Xiang Wang; Craig S Frear; Joseph H Harrison; Marc W Beutel

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2016.01.063

Potential application of Alcaligenes faecalis strain No. 4 in mitigating ammonia emissions from dairy wastewater

Bioresour Technol. 2016 Apr:206:36-42. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2016.01.063. Epub 2016 Jan 25.

Authors

George M Neerackal¹, Pius M Ndegwa², Hung-Soo Joo³, Xiang Wang¹, Craig S Frear¹, Joseph H Harrison⁴, Marc W Beutel⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biological Systems Engineering, Washington State University, PO Box 646120, Pullman, WA 99164, USA.
² Department of Biological Systems Engineering, Washington State University, PO Box 646120, Pullman, WA 99164, USA. Electronic address: ndegwa@wsu.edu.
³ School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), 123 Cheomdan-Gwagiro, Buk-gu, Gwangju 500-712, Republic of Korea.
⁴ Department of Animal Sciences, Washington State University, 2606 West Pioneer, Puyallup, WA 98371, USA.
⁵ School of Engineering, University of California Merced, 5200 North Lake Road, Merced, CA 95343, USA.

PMID: 26845217
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2016.01.063

Abstract

This research examined the potential mitigation of NH3 emissions from dairy manure via an enhanced aerobic bio-treatment with bacterium Alcaligenes faecalis strain No. 4. The studies were conducted in aerated batch reactors using air and pure oxygen. Aeration with air and oxygen removed approximately 40% and 100% total ammoniacal nitrogen (TAN), respectively. Intermittent oxygenation (every 2 or 4 h) reduced oxygen consumption by 95%, while attaining nearly identical TAN removal to continuous aeration. The results revealed that adequate oxygen supply and supplementing dairy wastewater with carbon are essential for this bioprocess. Based on the nitrogen mass balance, only 4% of TAN was released as NH3 gas, while the majority was retained in either the microbial biomass (58%) or converted to nitrogen gas (36%). The mass balance results reveal high potential for environmentally friendly bio-treatment of dairy wastewater using A. faecalis strain No. 4 with respect to NH3 emissions.

Keywords: Batch aeration; Biological nitrogen removal; Nitrification-denitrification; Nitrogen gas; Oxygenation.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Alcaligenes faecalis / metabolism*
Ammonia / analysis*
Biomass
Bioreactors
Carbon
Dairying
Manure
Nitrogen / analysis
Nitrogen / metabolism*
Oxygen
Wastewater / chemistry*

Substances

Manure
Waste Water
Carbon
Ammonia
Nitrogen
Oxygen