Phosphorus (P) is an essential element for living organisms and anaerobic sludge is an attractive source for P recovery. Anaerobic P release depends on both phosphorus-accumulating organisms (PAOs) and extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). However, the P release contributed by the microbial cells and EPS was not addressed completely and the effect of temperature on the mechanism of P release and transformation was rarely considered. This study, therefore, investigated the effects of temperature on the P fraction and the relationship between PAOs metabolic pathway and EPS reaction using the Standards in Measurements and Testing (SMT) protocol and the 31P nuclear magnetic resonance (31P-NMR) experiments. Experimental results showed that the temperature not only affected the metabolism of PAOs, but also significantly influenced the EPS components and the hydrolysis of EPS-associated polyphosphate (poly-P). And the P release mainly occurred due to biological mechanisms with a conversion from non-reactive P (NRP) in both intracellular and extracellular substances to reactive P (RP) fractions. The highest concentration of total P in the supernatant (TPL) occurred at 15 °C, and the TPL release from the solid to liquid phase was better fitted with pseudo-second-order kinetic model. More organic P in the sludge (OPs) released from the sludge phase at 35 °C would convert into inorganic P (IPs) and non-apatite inorganic phosphorus (NAIPs) was the most labile P fraction for P release. The hydrolysis of EPS-associated poly-P was enhanced by higher temperatures with the degradation of the long-chain poly-P by PAOs. Meanwhile, a lower temperature could obviously improve the P release because the dominance of PAOs would potentially shift to GAOs with the increase of temperature. But the very-low temperature (5 °C) was not beneficial for the P release and suppressed the microbial activities.
This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.