Unraveling rapid start-up and stable maintenance of partial nitrification in domestic wastewater under high dissolved oxygen

Tong Wang; Xiyao Li; Qiongpeng Dan; Bo Wang; HanBin Wang; Yongzhen Peng

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2024.131989

Unraveling rapid start-up and stable maintenance of partial nitrification in domestic wastewater under high dissolved oxygen

Bioresour Technol. 2024 Dec 16:131989. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2024.131989. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Tong Wang¹, Xiyao Li¹, Qiongpeng Dan¹, Bo Wang¹, HanBin Wang¹, Yongzhen Peng²

Affiliations

¹ National Engineering Laboratory for Advanced Domestic Wastewater Treatment and Reuse Technology, Engineering Research Center of Beijing, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, PR China.
² National Engineering Laboratory for Advanced Domestic Wastewater Treatment and Reuse Technology, Engineering Research Center of Beijing, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, PR China. Electronic address: pyz@bjut.edu.cn.

PMID: 39694115
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2024.131989

Abstract

Partial nitrification (PN), is a promising nitrogen removal technology in wastewater treatment. Contrary to the dogma that low dissolved oxygen (DO) is more conducive to achieving PN, this study successfully established PN within 7 days under high DO conditions (> 6 mg/L). Ultra-stable PN was maintained over 143 days with an average nitrite accumulation ratio of 98 % treating real domestic wastewater. Kinetics indicated that the maximum activity difference increased to 40 folds between ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and nitrite oxidizing bacterium (NOB), resulting in AOB prospering while NOB declined. High DO operation reshaped the nitrifier community with AOB genera relative abundance increased substantially (0.1 %-1.2 %), while the predominant NOB Nitrospira was below the detection limit. Batch test confirmed the reproducibility of this strategy to achieve PN using ordinary activated sludge. This study provides an update on developing a feasible approach for the rapid realization and stable maintenance of mainstream PN.

Keywords: Domestic wastewater; High dissolved oxygen; NOB elimination; Nitrite accumulation; Partial nitrification.