Inhibitory effects of heavy metals and antibiotics on nitrifying bacterial activities in mature partial nitritation

Abstract

To facilitate the use of partial nitritation (PN) in nitrogen removal processes for livestock wastewater, this work investigated the inhibitory effects of heavy metals and antibiotics on the nitrifying bacterial activities of the PN processes. Biomass was collected from a continuous-flow internal-loop airlift reactor and cultured with fixed ammonium concentrations of 921 mg N L−1. Batch activity tests were conducted to determine the specific oxygen uptake rate. The individual and interactive inhibitory effects of Zn2+, Cu2+, oxytetracycline (OTC) and sulfamethazine (SMZ) were evaluated using an orthogonal test. The results showed that the half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values of Zn2+, Cu2+, OTC and SMZ on PN sludge were 50.1, 35.4, 447 and 1890 mg L−1, respectively. The joint toxicities of heavy metals (Zn2+ and Cu2+) and antibiotics (OTC and SMZ) in the PN mixed culture were generally synergistic, except for between Zn2+ and Cu2+, which was antagonistic. In joint toxicity tests, the significance of the inhibitory effect of Zn2+ (15.3–164.3 mg L−1), Cu2+ (13.8–90.9 mg L−1), OTC (27.0–866.5 mg L−1) and SMZ (290–3490 mg L−1) on the nitrifying bacterial activity can be ranked in the following order: SMZ > Cu2+ > Zn2+ > OTC. Additionally, different exposure times (1 h, 3 h and 24 h) with or without aeration were also comparatively studied. These results show that a greater PN sludge activity loss than when exposure without aeration.