Temperature-Tolerated Mainstream Nitrogen Removal by Anammox and Nitrite/Nitrate-Dependent Anaerobic Methane Oxidation in a Membrane Biofilm Reactor

Environ Sci Technol. 2020 Mar 3;54(5):3012-3021. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.9b05650. Epub 2020 Feb 19.

Abstract

The mainstream anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) process provides strong support to the on-going paradigm shift from energy-negative to energy-neutral in wastewater treatment plants. However, the low temperature (e.g., below 15 °C) represents one of the major challenges for mainstream anammox in practice. In this study, a stable nitrogen removal rate (0.13 kg m-3 day-1), together with a high-level effluent quality (<5.0 mg N L-1), was achieved in a lab-scale upflow membrane biofilm reactor (MBfR) by coupling anammox with nitrite/nitrate-dependent anaerobic methane oxidation (n-DAMO) microorganisms, at a temperature as low as 10 °C. With the temperature being progressively decreased from 25 to 10 °C, the total nitrogen removal efficiency was maintained in the range of 90-94% at a constant hydraulic retention time of 9 h. The impact of temperature on the biofilm system coupling anammox and n-DAMO reactions increased at a lower temperature range with higher Arrhenius coefficients. Additionally, 16S rRNA gene sequencing results showed that anammox bacteria, n-DAMO bacteria, and n-DAMO archaea jointly dominated the biofilm, and their respective abundances remained relatively stable when the temperature was decreased. The major reason for this temperature-tolerated performance is the overcapacity developed, which is indicated by biofilm thickness measurements and mathematical modeling. The stable performance obtained in this study shows promise for the n-DAMO application in domestic wastewater.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Ammonium Compounds*
  • Anaerobiosis
  • Biofilms
  • Bioreactors
  • Denitrification
  • Methane*
  • Nitrites
  • Nitrogen
  • Oxidation-Reduction
  • RNA, Ribosomal, 16S
  • Temperature

Substances

  • Ammonium Compounds
  • Nitrites
  • RNA, Ribosomal, 16S
  • Nitrogen
  • Methane