Microbial analysis for the ammonium removal from landfill leachate in an aerobic granular sludge sequencing batch reactor

Yanjie Wei; Yuanyao Ye; Min Ji; Shitao Peng; Feifei Qin; Wenshan Guo; Huu Hao Ngo

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2020.124639

Microbial analysis for the ammonium removal from landfill leachate in an aerobic granular sludge sequencing batch reactor

Bioresour Technol. 2021 Mar:324:124639. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2020.124639. Epub 2021 Jan 5.

Authors

Yanjie Wei¹, Yuanyao Ye², Min Ji³, Shitao Peng⁴, Feifei Qin⁴, Wenshan Guo², Huu Hao Ngo⁵

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Environmental Protection in Water Transport Engineering Ministry of Communications, Tianjin Research Institute of Water Transport Engineering, Tianjin 300456, China; School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China.
² Centre for Technology in Water and Wastewater, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia.
³ School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Environmental Protection in Water Transport Engineering Ministry of Communications, Tianjin Research Institute of Water Transport Engineering, Tianjin 300456, China.
⁵ Centre for Technology in Water and Wastewater, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia. Electronic address: ngohuuhao121@gmail.com.

PMID: 33434875
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2020.124639

Abstract

In this study, a laboratory-scale sequencing batch reactor (SBR) equipped with aerobic granular sludge (AGS) technology was continuously operated for 220 days to remove ammonium from an existing landfill leachate. The ammonium removal was characterized by polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) technology. This method helped to analyze the long-term community structural stability of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB), nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) and denitrifying bacteria (DB) throughout the experiment. Simultaneously, 16S rRNA gene cloning and sequencing analysis identified the dominant species of different microbial species. Experimental results confirmed that ammonium removal was inhibited at the high nitrogen loading rate (NLR) stage while the low NLR stage achieved satisfactory ammonium removal. Moreover, the findings demonstrated that functionally stable wastewater treatment bioreactors facilitated the occurrence of stable microbial community structures.

Keywords: 16S rRNA; Aerobic granular sludge; Ammonium removal; Community analysis; Landfill leachate; PCR-DGGE.

MeSH terms

Ammonium Compounds*
Bioreactors
Nitrogen
RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / genetics
Sewage
Water Pollutants, Chemical*

Substances

Ammonium Compounds
RNA, Ribosomal, 16S
Sewage
Water Pollutants, Chemical
Nitrogen