Inoculating granular sludge is an alternative method for the quick start-up of a high-performance autotrophic nitrogen removal reactor. In order to establish the response relationship between sludge activation and reactor performance, the freeze-stored granular sludge was inoculated into a continuous-flow reactor, and a control strategy of the high loading rate and high hydraulic selective pressure was carried out in this study. As a result, a one-stage partial nitritation/ANAMMOX process was started up in 34 days, and the removal efficiency of total nitrogen was over 83%, with a removal loading rate of total nitrogen of 1.67 kg·(m3·d)-1. During this period, the Image pro-plus software was employed to analyze the evolution of the characteristic dimensions of particles. A good linear positive correlation (R2=0.988) between the projected area of the erythrine zone in the inner layer and the specific nitrogen removal rate of granules was found, which provide a simple method to estimate the activity of the PN/A granules. The results of MiSeq high-throughput sequencing showed that the enrichment of aerobic ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (Nitrosomonas) and the wash-out of heterotrophic bacteria (such as Denitratisoma and Haliangium, etc.) were achieved in the start-up of the reactor. Meanwhile, the improvement in granular compactness was in favor of activating anaerobic ammonia oxidizing bacteria (Candidatus_Kuenenia, abundance>30%) that colonized the inner layer of the granules.
Keywords: aerobic granular sludge; anaerobic ammonia oxidation(ANAMMOX); bacterial community structure; nitrogen removal performance; particle morphology.