Consumption of ammonia-nitrogen by aob in immobilized batch culture

Abstract

This study investigated the performance of bio-filters immobilized nitrifying bacteria, ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB). In particular, it was to assess the consumption of ammonia-nitrogen (NH 3 -N) by the AOB. The experiment was conducted in a one litre reactor.The reactor consisted of bio-filters with NH 3 -N as the substrate for the nitrifying bacteria. Low concentration of NH 3 -N (between 5 and 25 mg/L) and high concentrations (between 35 and 100 mg/L) were used in this batch culture experiment.Simultaneously, the production of nitrate-nitrogen was also evaluated by the consumption of nitrite-nitrogen by the NOB.The results showed that the nitrifying bacteria in the bio-filters were able to reduce the NH 3 -N rapidly between 5 and 15 mg/L of NH also found that the highest removal rate of NH 3 -N was in 100 mg/L. Keywords : ammonia-nitrogen; immobilized; biobio-filter; batch culture.