Carbon availability shifts the nitrogen removal pathway and microbial community in biofilm airlift reactor

Yale Deng; Yunjie Ruan; Mohammad J Taherzadeh; Jishuang Chen; Wanhe Qi; Dedong Kong; Bin Ma; Xiangyang Xu; Huifeng Lu

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2020.124568

Carbon availability shifts the nitrogen removal pathway and microbial community in biofilm airlift reactor

Bioresour Technol. 2021 Mar:323:124568. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2020.124568. Epub 2020 Dec 28.

Authors

Yale Deng¹, Yunjie Ruan², Mohammad J Taherzadeh³, Jishuang Chen⁴, Wanhe Qi⁵, Dedong Kong⁶, Bin Ma⁷, Xiangyang Xu⁷, Huifeng Lu⁷

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Agricultural Bio-Environmental Engineering, College of Bio-systems Engineering and Food Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China; Aquaculture and Fisheries Group, Department of Animal Sciences, Wageningen University, WD Wageningen 6708, The Netherlands.
² Institute of Agricultural Bio-Environmental Engineering, College of Bio-systems Engineering and Food Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China; The Rural Development Academy, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China. Electronic address: ruanyj@zju.edu.cn.
³ Swedish Centre for Resource Recovery, University of Borås, Borås 50190, Sweden.
⁴ Institute of Bioresource Engineering, Nanjing Technology University, Nanjing 210009, China.
⁵ Institute of Agricultural Bio-Environmental Engineering, College of Bio-systems Engineering and Food Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
⁶ Agricultural Experiment Station, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
⁷ Department of Environmental Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.

PMID: 33360950
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2020.124568

Abstract

This study investigated the response of nitrogen removal performance and microbial community to different carbon composites in biofilm airlift reactors for wastewater treatment. Three reactors were filled with poly (butylene succinate) and bamboo powder composite at the blending ratio of 9:1, 1:1 and 1:9. Increasing the component of bamboo powder in the carrier reduced the carbon availability and had an adverse effect on nitrate removal efficiency. However, bamboo powder improved the ammonia removal rate which mainly through autotrophic nitrification. Three reactors exhibited distinct microbial compositions in both bacterial and fungal diversity. High inclusion of bamboo power decreased the relative abundance of denitrifiers Denitromonas and increased the relative abundance of nitrifiers, including Nitromonas, Nitrospina and Nitrospira. Moreover, correlation network revealed a competitive interaction between the taxa responsible for ammonia removal and nitrate removal processes. Those results indicated the feasibility of steering nitrogen removal pathway through carrier formulation in wastewater treatment.

Keywords: Bacterial community; Biofilm composite carrier; Correlation network; Fungal community; Nitrogen removal.

MeSH terms

Biofilms
Bioreactors
Carbon
Denitrification
Microbiota*
Nitrification
Nitrogen*
Wastewater

Substances

Waste Water
Carbon
Nitrogen