Effect of inoculum and sulfide type on simultaneous hydrogen sulfide removal from biogas and nitrogen removal from swine slurry and microbial mechanism

• Published in: Applied microbiology and biotechnology Vol. 99; no. 24; pp. 10793 - 10803
• Main Authors: Wang, Lan, Wei, Benping, Chen, Ziai, Deng, Liangwei, Song, Li, Wang, Shuang, Zheng, Dan, Liu, Yi, Pu, Xiaodong, Zhang, Yunhong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.12.2015; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: absorption; Alternative energy sources; Anaerobiosis; Analysis; Animals; Bacteria; Biodegradation; Biofuels - microbiology; Biogas; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biota; Biotechnology; Carbon; Chemical oxygen demand; Cluster Analysis; denitrification; denitrifying microorganisms; DNA, Bacterial - chemistry; DNA, Bacterial - genetics; DNA, Ribosomal - chemistry; DNA, Ribosomal - genetics; Efficiency; Effluents; Environmental Biotechnology; genes; Hogs; Hydrogen; Hydrogen sulfide; Hydrogen Sulfide - metabolism; inoculum; Life Sciences; Microbial Genetics and Genomics; Microbiology; Molecular Sequence Data; Nitrates; Nitrogen; Nitrogen - metabolism; Phylogeny; Physiological aspects; pig manure; Reactors; Renewable resources; ribosomal RNA; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S - genetics; sequence analysis; Sequence Analysis, DNA; Sewage - microbiology; Sludge; Studies; sulfides; Sulfur; Swine; Thiobacillus; China; Nitrogen removal; 454 pyrosequencing; Swine slurry; Biogas; Bacterial diversity; Hydrogen sulfide removal
• ISSN: 0175-7598; 1432-0614
• DOI: 10.1007/s00253-015-6916-3

Four reactors were initiated to study the effect of inoculum and sulfide type on the simultaneous hydrogen sulfide removal from biogas and nitrogen removal from swine slurry (Ssu-Nir) process. Anaerobic sludge, aerobic sludge, and water were used as inocula, and Na₂S and biogas were used as a sulfide substrate, respectively. Additionally, 454 pyrosequencing of the 16S rRNA gene was used to explore the bacterial diversity. The results showed that sulfur-oxidizing bacteria (Thiobacillus, 42.2–84.4 %) were dominant in Ssu-Nir process and led to the excellent performance. Aerobic sludge was more suitable for inoculation of the Ssu-Nir process because it is better for rapidly enriching dominant sulfur-oxidizing bacteria (Thiobacillus, 54.4 %), denitrifying sulfur-oxidizing bacteria (40.0 %) and denitrifiers (23.9 %). Lower S²⁻ removal efficiency (72.6 %) and NO₃ ⁻ removal efficiency (<90 %) of the Ssu-Nir process were obtained using biogas as a sulfide substrate than when Na₂S was used. For the Ssu-Nir process with biogas as the sulfide substrate, limiting H₂S absorption caused a high relative abundance of sulfur-oxidizing bacteria, Thiobacillus (84.8 %) and Thiobacillus sayanicus (39.6 %), which in turn led to low relative abundance of denitrifiers (1.6 %) and denitrifying sulfur-oxidizing bacteria (24.4 %), low NO₃ ⁻ removal efficiency, and eventually poor performance.