Simultaneous microbial removal of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus in a modified anaerobic/aerobic (A/O) bioreactor with no phosphorus release

• Published in: Water and environment journal : WEJ Vol. 31; no. 2; pp. 158 - 167
• Main Authors: Luo, Weishi, Peng, Xingxing, Jing, Fei, Zhang, Zaili, Jia, Xiaoshan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.05.2017
• Subjects: A/O bioreactor; Ammonium; Ammonium compounds; anaerobic; Anaerobic microorganisms; Analytical methods; Bioreactors; Carbon; Consortia; Debugging; Denitrification; Electrophoresis; functional bacteria; Functional groups; Gel electrophoresis; Gels; Glucose; Microorganisms; Nitrification; Nitrogen; nitrogen removal; Phosphorus; phosphorus removal; Phylogeny; Principal components analysis; Removal; Response surface methodology; Solid suspensions; Suspended particulate matter
• ISSN: 1747-6585; 1747-6593
• DOI: 10.1111/wej.12229

A modified anaerobic/aerobic (A/O) bioreactor that simultaneously removed carbon, nitrogen ( NH4+‐N) and phosphorus ( PO43−‐P) was continuously run and debugged. After 34 days of reactor operation, the removal efficiencies of NH4+‐N, carbon (glucose) and PO43−‐P reached 99.26, 95.81 and 94.35%, respectively. Notably, the ammonium removal with no accumulation of nitrite ( NO2−‐N) and nitrate ( NO3−‐N) in the anaerobic part supported the occurrence of simultaneous nitrification and denitrification and no PO43−‐P was released during the removal process of phosphorus. Moreover, the principal component analysis and response surface methodology based on the Box–Behnken design were applied to determine the optimal removal conditions for volatile suspended solids (VSS) (335 mg/L), NH4+‐N (60 mg/L), glucose (900 mg/L) and pH (7). Finally, phylogenetic analysis of the bacterial consortium was conducted by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis, which demonstrated that Clostridium and Proteobacteria were the potential functional groups in the anaerobic tank of the A/O bioreactor.