Nitrifying Granular Sludge Research Articles

Performance of autotrophic nitrogen removal in the granular sludge bed reactor

The autotrophic nitrogen removal process in the granular sludge bed reactor (GSB-ANR process) is a new and promising biotechnology for nitrogen removal from wastewater, which requires single reactor, simple operation and inorganic carbon. The results showed that the GSB-ANR process could be successfully started up with nitrifying granular sludge as inoculum. The volumetric nitrogen loading rate and the volumetric nitrogen removal rate reached 5.44 and 2.57kgNm−3day−1, respectively, which were significantly higher than the level reported for the autotrophic nitrogen removal processes in single reactor. The predominant functional microorganisms were from Planctomycetes and Nitrosomonas. The excellent performance of GSB-ANR process was ascribed to: (a) The high activities of aerobic ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and anaerobic ammonium oxidation (ANAMMOX) bacteria; (b) the good settlability of the granular sludge; (c) the suitable DO concentration that satisfied the oxygen requirement of AOB and prevented ANAMMOX bacteria from oxygen inhibition.

Heterotrophs grown on the soluble microbial products (SMP) released by autotrophs are responsible for the nitrogen loss in nitrifying granular sludge

In this work, nitrogen loss in the nitrite oxidation step of the nitrification process in an aerobic-granule-based reactor was characterized with both experimental and modeling approaches. Experimental results showed that soluble microbial products (SMP) were released from the nitrite-oxidizing granules and were utilized as a carbon source by the heterotrophs for denitrification. This was verified by the fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) analysis. Microelectrode tests showed that oxygen diffusion limitation did result in an anoxic micro-zone in the granules and allowed sequential utilization of nitrate as an electron acceptor for heterotrophic denitrification with SMP as a carbon source. To further elucidate the nitrogen loss mechanisms, a mathematic model was formulated to describe the growth of nitrite oxidizers, the formation and consumption of SMP, the anoxic heterotrophic growth on SMP and nitrate, as well as the oxygen transfer and the substrate diffusion in the granules. The results clearly indicate that the heterotrophs grown on the SMP released by the autotrophs are responsible for the nitrogen loss in the nitrifying granules, and give us a better understanding of the aerobic granules for nitrogen removal. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2011;108: 2844-2852. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Sorption and biodegradation of tetracycline by nitrifying granules and the toxicity of tetracycline on granules

This paper examines the simultaneous sorption and biodegradation performance of tetracycline (TC) by the nitrifying granular sludge as well as the short-term exposure toxicity of TC. The removal of TC was characterized by a quick sorption and a slow process of biodegradation. The adsorption process fits pseudo-second-order kinetic model, with a complex mechanism of surface adsorption and intra-particle diffusion. Both temperature and mixed liquor suspended solid (MLSS) influenced TC sorption to the granules. TC biodegradation was enhanced with the increase of COD and NH 4 +–N concentrations, with except of the NH 4 +–N concentrations higher than 150 mg/L. With the ATU addition, TC degradation was weakened remarkably, indicating a synergistic effect of multiple microbes. Results of the short-term exposure (12 h) effects showed that the respirometric activities of the microbes decreased greatly. The addition of TC also decreased the rate of NH 4 +–N utilization considerably, with the half saturation constant ( K s) increasing from 297.7 to 347.2 mg/L.