In this study, a set of two-stage UASB reactor was used to study the characteristics of denitrification inhibiting sulfate reduction in oil field gathering and transportation system and some high salt wastewater, and the characteristics of granular sludge and microbial characteristics were studied after the stable operation of the process. The results showed that the addition of NaNO2 increased the number of denitrifying bacteria (DNB) from 7.0×103 CFU·(100 mL)-1 to 7.3×105 CFU·(100 mL)-1 and remained stable in the process from start to mature. The competitive inhibition caused by DNB decreased the number of SRB from 8.0×105 CFU·(100 mL)-1 to 7.6×104 CFU·(100 mL)-1. Meanwhile, the sulfate reduction was inhibited, and the inhibition rate increased and finally stabilized to 82%. The study on mass ratio of microbial mass to nitrite effecting on denitrification efficiency showed that the inhibition rate of S2- was the highest, reaching 92%, when the mass ratio was 1200. The inhibition rate of the process could remain at about 92%, with good stability. The particle size and sedimentation rate of granular sludge were measured to determine whether the process conditions were favorable for the formation of granular sludge. The study showed that the denitrifying granular sludge formed was brown, basically ellipsoidal and spherical, with smooth surface and high density. Before the denitrification inhibition, the particle size of granular sludge was 1.0-1.4 mm and the average diameter was 1.17 mm, and after denitrification inhibition, the particle size distribution was 1.2-1.6 mm, the average particle size was 1.21 mm, which indicated that the denitrification inhibition increased the size of granular sludge. The average sedimentation velocity of denitrifying granular sludge was 47.6 m·h-1, which revealed the good settling performance of the granular sludge. The results of PCR-DGGE analysis showed that the denitrification inhibition reduced the number of microbial species from 18 to 14 and the number of dominant species decreased from 4 to 3, indicating the decreasing microbial diversity. The similarity of microbial population before and after nitrification was 62.6% and the population structure changed greatly from SRB to DNB. The number of dominant SRB species decreased from 4 to 2 after denitrification inhibition and the abundance of every species decreased obviously. The main functional bacterial species of the inhibition process was uncultured Sulfurimonas sp., which is a kind of autotrophic denitrifying bacteria. It dominated and competed with SRB for electrons, inhibiting the sulfate reduction and the production of sulfide.
Keywords: PCR-DGGE; denitrification; denitrifying bacteria (DNB); granular sludge; sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB).