TY - JOUR
T1 - Effects of porous carrier size on biofilm development, microbial distribution and nitrogen removal in microaerobic bioreactors
AU - Ahmad, Muhammad
AU - Liu, Sitong
AU - Mahmood, Nasir
AU - Mahmood, Asif
AU - Ali, Muhammad
AU - Zheng, Maosheng
AU - Ni, Jinren
N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01
Acknowledgements: The authors highly appreciate the National Science Foundation of China (NO. 51539001) for providing financial support for this study.
PY - 2017/3/15
Y1 - 2017/3/15
N2 - In this study, effects of porous carrier’s size (polyurethane-based) on microbial characteristics were systematically investigated in addition to nitrogen removal performance in six microaerobic bioreactors. Among different sized carriers (50, 30, 20, 15,10, 5 mm), 15 mm carrier showed highest nitrogen removal (98%) due to optimal micro-environments created for aerobic nitrifiers in outer layer (0∼7 mm), nitrifiers and denitrifiers in middle layer (7∼10 mm) and anaerobic denitrifiers in inner layer (10∼15 mm). Candidatus brocadia, a dominant anammox bacteria, was solely concentrated close to centroid (0∼70 μm) and strongly co-aggregated with other bacterial communities in the middle layer of the carrier. Contrarily, carriers with a smaller (15 mm) either destroy the effective zone for anaerobic denitrifiers or damage the microaerobic environments due to poor mass transfer. This study is of particular use for optimal design of carriers in enhancing simultaneous nitrification-denitrification in microaerobic wastewater treatment processes.
AB - In this study, effects of porous carrier’s size (polyurethane-based) on microbial characteristics were systematically investigated in addition to nitrogen removal performance in six microaerobic bioreactors. Among different sized carriers (50, 30, 20, 15,10, 5 mm), 15 mm carrier showed highest nitrogen removal (98%) due to optimal micro-environments created for aerobic nitrifiers in outer layer (0∼7 mm), nitrifiers and denitrifiers in middle layer (7∼10 mm) and anaerobic denitrifiers in inner layer (10∼15 mm). Candidatus brocadia, a dominant anammox bacteria, was solely concentrated close to centroid (0∼70 μm) and strongly co-aggregated with other bacterial communities in the middle layer of the carrier. Contrarily, carriers with a smaller (15 mm) either destroy the effective zone for anaerobic denitrifiers or damage the microaerobic environments due to poor mass transfer. This study is of particular use for optimal design of carriers in enhancing simultaneous nitrification-denitrification in microaerobic wastewater treatment processes.
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10754/623035
UR - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960852417303486
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85016076581&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.biortech.2017.03.076
DO - 10.1016/j.biortech.2017.03.076
M3 - Article
C2 - 28343055
SN - 0960-8524
VL - 234
SP - 360
EP - 369
JO - Bioresource Technology
JF - Bioresource Technology
ER -