Effect of free nitrous acid on nitritation process: Microbial community, inhibitory kinetics, and functional biomarker

Yucan Liu; Yuliang Zhu; Daishun Wu; Zhaoyang Wang; Yajun Wang; Gang Wang; Xin Zhou; Hongwei Sun

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2023.128595

Effect of free nitrous acid on nitritation process: Microbial community, inhibitory kinetics, and functional biomarker

Bioresour Technol. 2023 Mar:371:128595. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2023.128595. Epub 2023 Jan 9.

Authors

Yucan Liu¹, Yuliang Zhu¹, Daishun Wu², Zhaoyang Wang³, Yajun Wang⁴, Gang Wang⁵, Xin Zhou⁶, Hongwei Sun⁷

Affiliations

¹ School of Environmental and Material Engineering, Yantai University, Yantai 264005, China; School of Civil Engineering, Yantai University, Yantai 264005, China.
² Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Coastal Basin Environment, School of Marine and Biochemical Engineering, Fujian Polytechnic Normal University, Fuqing 350300, China.
³ College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China.
⁴ School of Civil Engineering, Lanzhou University of Technology, Lanzhou 730050, China.
⁵ School of Environmental and Material Engineering, Yantai University, Yantai 264005, China.
⁶ College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China.
⁷ School of Environmental and Material Engineering, Yantai University, Yantai 264005, China. Electronic address: sunhw@ytu.edu.cn.

PMID: 36634879
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2023.128595

Abstract

This work comprehensively deciphered the effect of free nitrous acid (FNA) on the microbial community, inhibitory kinetics, and nitrifiers in nitritation process. Nitritation was first successfully achieved through selective inhibition of free ammonia (FA) on nitrite oxidizers (NOB). Then, batch tests clearly showed that FNA significantly inhibits the ammonia oxidation rate (r_su) and the growth rate (μ) of ammonia oxidizers (AOB), which was well described by the Hellinga model (K_I = 0.222 mg·L^-1). The structural equation model indicated that FNA was significantly and negatively associated with r_su, μ, Nitrosomonas, Commamons, Nitrospira, and Nitrotoga and positively correlated with Paracoccus. Furthermore, Nitrosomonas significantly drove the ammonia utilization and growth of AOB and was identified as the most important functional biomarker indicating the nitritation in response to FNA levels using random forest model. This study provides helpful information on the kinetics of the mechanism underlying the FNA inhibition on nitrification.

Keywords: Biomarker; Free nitrous acid; Kinetic modeling; Nitritation; Nitrosomonas.

MeSH terms

Ammonia
Bioreactors
Microbiota*
Nitrification
Nitrites
Nitrosomonas
Nitrous Acid*
Oxidation-Reduction
Sewage

Substances

Nitrous Acid
Ammonia
Nitrites
Sewage