Long-term exposure to zinc oxide nanoparticles improves PAOs function in enhanced biological phosphorus removal.

As the most widely applied process for biological phosphorus removal, enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) relies on phosphorus accumulating organisms (PAOs) and glycogen accumulating organisms (GAOs), whose function is crucial for the removal of phosphorus. In this study, the effect of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs, 0-50 mg/L) on EBPR performance was investigated in both long-term reactors and batch experiments. It was found that the performance of biological phosphorus removal was recovered from 0% (day 0) to >99% (day 70) after long-term exposure of ZnO NPs (50 mg/L). Further studies revealed that ZnO NPs treatment caused no significant effects on the morphology and settleability of activated sludge, but enhanced the release and uptake of phosphorus as well as the transformations of polyhydroxyalkanoates and glycogen in activated sludge, which suggested that PAOs were re-activated during long-term exposure to ZnO NPs. Fluorescence in-situ hybridization (FISH) analysis showed that the relative abundance of PAOs was increased after long-term exposure. Meanwhile, the enzymatic activities of PPX and PPK were also enhanced. These results indicated that compared with short-term exposure, long-term exposure to ZnO NPs favours PAOs function and thus led to the recovery of biological phosphorus removal.

A study of synchronous measurement of liable phosphorous and iron based on ZrO-Chelex (DGT) in the sediment of the Chaiwopu Lake, Xinjiang, Northwest China.

The water-sediment interface of lakes is an important and unique area of the water environment; the geochemical behavior of nutrients in this area has a significant impact on the quality of the water environment and ecosystems, especially in shallow lakes. However, most studies do not provide direct in situ evidence for this in shallow lakes in arid regions; in order to explore the coupling relationship between phosphorus (P) and iron (Fe) in a sediment profile, we conducted a high-resolution analysis of liable Fe and P in sediments taken from the Chaiwopu Lake using ZrO-Chelex thin film diffusion gradient technology (ZrO-Chelex DGT). The results show that (1) the vertical spatial distribution trend of the liable P and Fe in the sediments from each sampling site is essentially similar. The contents of the liable P and Fe ranged from 0.004-0.125 mg/L and 0.050-0.190 mg/L, respectively, and the synchronous distribution of the micro-interface concentration reflects the coupling relationship between them. (2) The correlation analysis of the liable P and Fe concentrations showed that there were significant linear correlations between them (P < 0.05, bilateral). (3) The diffusion fluxes of P and Fe were - 51.76~65.12 µg (m2 d)-1 and - 451.27~457.06 µg (m2 d)-1, respectively, and were shown to be negative at the sediment-water interface for most of the samples, which showed that P and Fe were released from the overlying water into the sediments. (4) This research showed that the diffusive fluxes at the different sites are quite different, which indicates that the phosphorus and iron pollution in the sediments of the Chaiwopu Lake is affected by exogenous inputs. There was no significant correlation between P release flux and pH, ORP, conductivity (EC), the TDS of the overlying water, or the pH, salinity (Ca2+, Mg2+), and nutrient (organic matter) content of the sediment. The release flux of Fe is affected by the pH of the sediment. The results of this study provide references for the research of elements in the water-sediment interface of shallow lakes in arid regions, as well as other areas.

A study by response surface methodology (RSM) on optimization of phosphorus adsorption with nano spherical calcium carbonate derived from waste.

A nano spherical CaCO3 (NSC) derived from solid waste (precipitated from tris(α-chloropropyl) phosphate and triethyl phosphate mixed wastewater) was prepared as adsorbent for phosphorus removal from aqueous solution. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to develop an approach for the evaluation of phosphorus adsorption process, and Box-Behnken design was performed to investigate the effects of various experimental parameters (temperature, contact time, initial pH and dosage of absorbent) on phosphorus adsorption. The model results of experimental data gave a high correlation coefficient (R2 = 0.9658), and a predictive model of quadratic polynomial regression equation and optimum level values were established successfully. It was found that the adsorption efficiency and adsorption capacity reached 97.05% and 123.79 mg/g, respectively, under conditions of temperature of 45 °C, initial pH 5.3, contact time of 11 h, and absorbent amount of 392 mg/L. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis testified new phase, Ca10(PO4)6CO3, was produced in the adsorption process. Apart from that, adsorption behavior fitted well with the Langmuir isotherm model and logistic growth model. The thermodynamic study indicated that phosphorus removal by NSC as adsorbent was a spontaneous, endothermic, and mainly chemical adsorption process.

Generation and characterization of DOM in wastewater treatment processes.

Wastewater reuse for resolving water shortage is increasingly emphasized. The presence of DOM in wastewater is a main consideration for wastewater reuse. Therefore, systematic understanding of characteristic changes of DOM in different wastewater treatment processes is needed. As biotechnology together with disinfection operation has been used widely by WWTPs to treat wastewater, this review aims to introduce the recent advances in the effects of wastewater biological treatment and disinfection on the characteristics of DOM. Firstly, the composition of DOM in WWTPs is introduced. Then, the effects of wastewater treatments on hydrophobicity, MW distribution and optical characteristics of DOM and their correlations are reviewed. Also, the influences of wastewater treatments on biodegradability and biotoxicity of DOM are discussed. Finally, the environmental impact of effluent DOM is summarized. Since the discharge of wastewater effluent DOM to the environment not only influences nutrient uptake by bacteria, plankton and algae, and phototransformation rate of micropollutants in natural water, but also changes DOM level and physicochemical properties of soil.

Municipal wastewater biological nutrient removal driven by the fermentation liquid of dairy wastewater.

Carbon substrate is required by biological nutrient removal (BNR) microorganism, but it is usually insufficient in the influent of many municipal wastewater treatment plants. In this study the use of ethanol-enriched fermentation liquid, which was derived from dairy wastewater, as the preferred carbon substrate of BNR was reported. First, the application of dairy wastewater and food processing wastewater and their fermentation liquid as the carbon substrate of BNR was compared in the short-term tests. The fermented wastewater showed higher BNR performance than the unfermented one, and the fermentation liquid of dairy wastewater (FL-DW), which was obtained under pH 8 and fermentation time of 6 day, exhibited the highest phosphorus (95.5%) and total nitrogen (97.6%) removal efficiencies due to its high ethanol content (57.9%). Then, the long-term performance of FL-DW acting as the carbon substrate of BNR was compared with that of acetate and ethanol, and the FL-DW showed the greatest phosphorus and total nitrogen removal. Further investigation showed that the use of FL-DW caused the highest polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) synthesis in BNR microbial cells, and more PHAs were used for phosphorus uptake and denitrification rather than glycogen synthesis and microbial growth. The FL-DW can be used as a preferred carbon substrate for BNR microbes. ABBREVIATIONS: AB: aerobic end sludge active biomass; BNR: biological nutrient removal; DW: dairy wastewater; FL-DW: fermentation liquid of dairy wastewater; FPW: food processing wastewater; FL-FPW: fermentation liquid of food processing wastewater; PHAs: polyhydroxyalkanoates; PHB: poly-3-hydroxybutyrate; PHV: poly-3-hydroxyvalerate; PH2MV: poly-3-hydroxy-2- methylvalerate; PAOs: phosphorus accumulating organisms; SBR: sequencing batch reactor; SOP: soluble ortho-phosphorus; TN: total nitrogen; TSS: total suspended solids; VSS: volatile suspended solids; VFAs: volatile fatty acids; WWTPs: wastewater treatment plants.

Using sludge fermentation liquid to reduce the inhibitory effect of copper oxide nanoparticles on municipal wastewater biological nutrient removal.

The deterioration of biological nutrient removal (BNR) can occur with the release of engineering nanomaterials into wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Also, large amounts of waste sludge are generated in WWTPs, which can be reutilized as a useful resource. In this study, the use of sludge fermentation liquid to reduce CuO nanoparticles (NPs) toxicity to municipal wastewater BNR was reported. In the BNR system supplemented with sodium acetate, which was widely used as additional carbon source of municipal wastewater in literatures, the appearance of 2.5 mg/L CuO NPs for 5.5 h decreased the total nitrogen (TN) removal efficiency from 81.4% to 59.0%, but the TN removal was recovered to 78.7% after sodium acetate was replaced by sludge fermentation liquid. It was found that CuO NPs induced excessive generation of reactive nitrogen species (RNS), which led to the disorder of redox status, low levels of energy and reduction equivalents generations, and deterioration of denitrification. Further investigation revealed that cysteine in fermentation liquid played a vital biological role in reducing nanotoxicity by facilitating the synthesis of glutathione, which reduced excessive RNS generation, increased key proteins expression, guaranteed the metabolisms of intracellular energy and substrate smoothly, and finally recovered the BNR performance.

Biological nutrient removal with low nitrous oxide generation by cancelling the anaerobic phase and extending the idle phase in a sequencing batch reactor.

Although wastewater biological nutrient removal can be achieved by alternating the anaerobic-oxic-anoxic phases, significant amount of nitrous oxide (N2O) is generated in oxic phases, where ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) rather than heterotrophic denitrifiers are the main contributors. Here a new efficient strategy to remarkably reduce N2O generation was reported. It was found that by cancelling the anaerobic phase and extending the idle phase the N2O generation was reduced by 42% using synthetic wastewater, whereas the total nitrogen and phosphorus removals were unaffected. The mechanistic investigations revealed that the cancelling of anaerobic phase benefited heterotrophic denitrifiers instead of AOB to be responsible for nitrogen removal in the oxic phases, increased the ratio of total nitrogen removal driven by external carbon source, and decreased nitrite accumulation. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and fluorescence in situ hybridization analyses further showed that the new strategy increased the number of N2O reducing bacteria but decreased the abundance of glycogen accumulating organisms, with N2O as their primary denitrification product. It was also determined that the ratio of nitric oxide reductase activity to N2O reductase activity was significantly decreased after anaerobic phase was cancelled. All these observations were in accord with the reduction of N2O production. The feasibility of this strategy to minimize the generation of N2O was finally confirmed for a real municipal wastewater. The results reported in this paper provide a new viewpoint to reduce N2O generation from wastewater biological nutrient removal.

[Kinetic simulation of enhanced biological phosphorus removal with fermentation broth as carbon source].

As a high-quality carbon source, fermentation broth could promote the phosphorus removal efficiency in enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR). The transformation of substrates in EBPR fed with fermentation broth was well simulated using the modified activated sludge model No. 2 (ASM2) based on the carbon source metabolism. When fermentation broth was used as the sole carbon source, it was found that heterotrophic bacteria acted as a promoter rather than a competitor to the phosphorus accumulating organisms (PAO). When fermentation broth was used as a supplementary carbon source of real municipal wastewater, the wastewater composition was optimized for PAO growth; and the PAO concentration, which was increased by 3.3 times compared to that in EBPR fed with solely real municipal wastewater, accounting for about 40% of the total biomass in the reactor.

Efficient recovery of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus from waste activated sludge.

Carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus need to be recovered to reduce the environmental impact of waste activated sludge (WAS). In this study the improved short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) production from WAS by the addition of kitchen waste to adjust the ratio of carbon to nitrogen (C/N), and the efficient recovery of nitrogen and phosphorus from the fermentation liquid were reported. Firstly, the optimum conditions for SCFA production were found to be pH 8, temperature 35 °C, C/N ratio 21 mg-C/1 mg-N, and fermentation time 6 d, using the response surface methodology. After alkaline fermentation, the struvite precipitation method was applied to efficiently and simultaneously recover the released ammonia and phosphorus from the fermentation liquid. Finally, the fermentation liquid was used as the additional carbon source for biological nitrogen and phosphorus removal. It was observed that, compared with acetic acid, the use of fermentation liquid as carbon source showed greater removal efficiencies of total nitrogen and total phosphorus.

[Kinetic model of enhanced biological phosphorus removal with mixed acetic and propionic acids as carbon sources. (I): Model constitution].

Based on activated sludge model No. 2 (ASM2), the anaerobic/aerobic kinetic model of phosphorus-accumulating organisms (PAO) was established with mixed short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) as the base substance in enhanced biological phosphorus removal process. The characteristic of the PAO model was that the anaerobic metabolism rates of glycogen degradation, poly-beta-hydroxyalkanoates synthesis and polyphosphate hydrolysis were expressed by SCFAs uptake equation, and the effects of anaerobic maintenance on kinetics and stoichiometry were considered. The PAO kinetic model was composed of 3 soluble components, 4 particulate components and a pH parameter, which constituted the matrix of stoichiometric coefficients. On the basis of PAO model, the GAO kinetic model was established, which included 7 processes, and phosphorus content influenced the aerobic metabolism only.

[Kinetic model of enhanced biological phosphorus removal with mixed acetic and propionic acids as carbon sources. (II): Process simulation].

Two groups of sequencing batch reactors were used to study the metabolism substrate transformation of phosphorus-accumulating organisms (PAO) and glycogen-accumulating organisms (GAO) fed with mixed acetic and propionic acids. Seven stoichiometry parameters and 24 kinetic parameters were contained in the PAO and GAO kinetic model, and stoichiometry parameters were deduced from the stoichiometry models, while kinetic parameters were determined by experimental results. The kinetic model parameters of stoichiometry and kinetics were determined according the experiments and the literature. Subsequently, the substrate transformations of PAO and GAO were calculated by the Matlab software. The model curves matched the SBR experimental data well, indicating that the kinetic model based on SCFAs metabolism could be used to simulate PAO and GAO in anaerobic-aerobic conditions.

[Kinetic model of enhanced biological phosphorus removal with mixed acetic and propionic acids as carbon sources. (III): Model application].

The kinetic model based on SCFAs metabolism was applied for the prediction of phosphorus-and glycogen-accumulating organisms (PAO and GAO) competition with different carbon sources and m(P)/m(COD) ratios. When acetic acid was used as the sole carbon source, the biomass compositions were almost the same as those before cultivation, and neither PAO nor GAO could be out-competed from EBPR. However, increasing propionic acid in the influent helped PAO to be the predominance organism, and EBPR performance kept excellent when the ratio of propionate to mixed acids (acetate + propionate) was higher than 0.33. It also found that the m(P)/m(COD) ratio should be kept at 0.04-0.10 to avoid phosphorus became a limiting factor for PAO growth. This was because at low m(P)/m(COD) ratios, such as 0.01, GAO would take up 95% of the total (PAO + GAO) biomass.

Short-chain fatty acid production from different biological phosphorus removal sludges: the influences of PHA and Gram-staining bacteria.

Recently, the reuse of waste activated sludge to produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) has attracted much attention. However, the influences of sludge characteristics, especially polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) and Gram-staining bacteria, on SCFA production have seldom been investigated. It was found in this study that during sludge anaerobic fermentation not only the fermentation time but also the SCFA production were different between two sludges, which had different PHA contents and Gram-negative bacteria to Gram-positive bacteria (GNB/GPB) ratios and were generated respectively from the anaerobic/oxic (AO) and aerobic/extended-idle (AEI) biological phosphorus removal processes. The optimal fermentation time for the AEI and AO sludges was respectively 4 and 8 d, and the corresponding SCFA production was 304.6 and 231.0 mg COD/g VSS (volatile suspended solids) in the batch test and 143.4 and 103.9 mg COD/g VSS in the semicontinuous experiment. The mechanism investigation showed that the AEI sludge had greater PHA content and GNB/GPB ratio, and the increased PHA content accelerated cell lysis and soluble substrate hydrolysis while the increased GNB/GPB ratio benefited cell lysis. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis profiles revealed that the microbial community in the AEI sludge fermentation reactor was dominated by Clostridium sp., which was reported to be SCFA-producing microbes. Further enzyme analyses indicated that the activities of key hydrolytic and acids-forming enzymes in the AEI sludge fermentation reactor were higher than those in the AO one. Thus, less fermentation time was required, but higher SCFA was produced in the AEI sludge fermentation system.

Minimizing nitrous oxide in biological nutrient removal from municipal wastewater by controlling copper ion concentrations.

In this study, nitrous oxide (N(2)O) production during biological nutrient removal (BNR) from municipal wastewater was reported to be remarkably reduced by controlling copper ion (Cu(2+)) concentration. Firstly, it was observed that the addition of Cu(2+) (10-100 µg/L) reduced N(2)O generation by 54.5-73.2 % and improved total nitrogen removal when synthetic wastewater was treated in an anaerobic-aerobic (with low dissolved oxygen) BNR process. Then, the roles of Cu(2+) were investigated. The activities of nitrite and nitrous oxide reductases were increased by Cu(2+) addition, which accelerated the bio-reductions of both nitrite to nitric oxide (NO (2) (-) → NO) and nitrous oxide to nitrogen gas (N(2)O → N(2)). The quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction assay indicated that Cu(2+) addition increased the number of N(2)O reducing denitrifiers. Further investigation showed that more polyhydoxyalkanoates were utilized in the Cu(2+)-added system for denitrification. Finally, the feasibility of reducing N(2)O generation by controlling Cu(2+) was examined in two other BNR processes treating real municipal wastewater. As the Cu(2+) in municipal wastewater is usually below 10 µg/L, according to this study, the supplement of influent Cu(2+) to a concentration of 10-100 µg/L is beneficial to reduce N(2)O emission and improve nitrogen removal when sludge concentration in the BNR system is around 3,200 mg/L.

The impacts of silver nanoparticles and silver ions on wastewater biological phosphorous removal and the mechanisms.

The effects of AgNPs and Ag+ (0-5 mg/L) on wastewater enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) were investigated. The phosphorus removal efficiency was maintained at 99% no matter what the concentrations of AgNPs were, but it was decreased to 48.8% at Ag+ of 1 mg/L, and no net phosphorus was removed at Ag+ greater than 2 mg/L in the batch tests. The uptake of wastewater carbon source and the anaerobic and aerobic transformations of phosphorus, polyhydoxyalkanoates and glycogen were inhibited by Ag+ other than AgNPs. Ag+ showed stronger toxicity on polyphosphate accumulating organisms (PAOs) than glycogen accumulating organisms (GAOs). Further investigation revealed that the decrease in anaerobic phosphorus release by Ag+ was caused by the inhibition on the activities of adenylate kinase and expolyphosphatase, whereas the decrease in aerobic phosphorus uptake was due to the suppression in energy generation for phosphorus uptake. However, the presence of either AgNPs or Ag+ did not lead to cell leakage and membrane damage.

Acute and chronic responses of activated sludge viability and performance to silica nanoparticles.

Recently, the potential health and environmental risks of silica nanoparticles (SiO(2) NPs) are attracting great interest. However, little is known about their possible impacts on wastewater biological nitrogen and phosphorus removal. In this study, the acute and chronic effects of SiO(2) NPs on activated sludge viability and biological nutrient removal performance were investigated. It was found that the presence of environmentally relevant concentration (1 mg/L) of SiO(2) NPs caused no adverse acute and chronic effects on sludge viability and wastewater nitrogen and phosphorus removal. However, chronic exposure to 50 mg/L SiO(2) NPs induced the increase of effluent nitrate concentration, and thus depressed the total nitrogen (TN) removal efficiency from 79.6% to 51.6% after 70 days of exposure, which was due to the declined activities of denitrifying enzymes, nitrate reductase and nitrite reductase. Wastewater phosphorus removal was insensitive to 1 and 50 mg/L SiO(2) NPs after either the acute or chronic exposure, because the critical factors closely related to biological phosphorus removal were not significantly changed, such as the activities of exopolyphosphatase and polyphosphate kinase and the intracellular transformations of polyhydroxyalkanoates and glycogen. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) analysis revealed that the bacterial community structure was changed after long-term exposure to 50 mg/L SiO(2) NPs, and the quantitative PCR assays indicated that the abundance of denitrifying bacteria was decreased, which was consistent with the declined wastewater nitrogen removal.

Alumina nanoparticles-induced effects on wastewater nitrogen and phosphorus removal after short-term and long-term exposure.

Alumina nanoparticles (Al2O3 NPs) have been widely used in many fields, which causes a growing concern about their potential health and environmental risks. However, their possible impacts on wastewater nitrogen and phosphorus removal have not yet been reported. In this study, both short-term and long-term effects of Al2O3 NPs on wastewater nutrient removal were investigated. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis showed that most of Al2O3 NPs were adsorbed onto activated sludge, but these NPs had no adverse effects on the surface integrity and viability of activated sludge. It was found that short-term exposure to 1 and 50 mg/L Al2O3 NPs induced marginal influences on wastewater nitrification, denitrification and phosphorus removal. Nevertheless, the prolonged exposure to 50 mg/L Al2O3 NPs was observed to decrease the total nitrogen (TN) removal efficiency from 80.4% to 62.5% due to the suppressed denitrification process, although biological phosphorus removal and the transformations of intracellular polyhydroxyalkanoates and glycogen were not affected. Quantitative PCR assays indicated that compared with the control, 50 mg/L Al2O3 NPs decreased the abundance of denitrifying bacteria in activated sludge. Further enzyme activity tests showed that the activities of key denitrifying enzymes (nitrate reductase and nitrite reductase) were inhibited, which might be responsible for the negative effects of 50 mg/L Al2O3 NPs on wastewater nitrogen removal after long-term exposure.

Long-term effects of titanium dioxide nanoparticles on nitrogen and phosphorus removal from wastewater and bacterial community shift in activated sludge.

The expanding use of titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO(2) NPs) in a wide range of fields raises concerns about their potential environmental impacts. However, investigations of the potential effects of TiO(2) NPs on biological nitrogen and phosphorus removal and bacterial community in activated sludge are sparse. This study evaluated the influences of TiO(2) NPs on biological nutrient removal in the anaerobic-low dissolved oxygen (0.15-0.50 mg/L) sequencing batch reactor. It was found that 1 and 50 mg/L TiO(2) NPs had no acute effects on wastewater nitrogen and phosphorus removal after short-term exposure (1 day). However, 50 mg/L TiO(2) NPs (higher than its environmentally relevant concentration) was observed to significantly decrease total nitrogen (TN) removal efficiency from 80.3% to 24.4% after long-term exposure (70 days), whereas biological phosphorus removal was unaffected. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis profiles showed that 50 mg/L TiO(2) NPs obviously reduced the diversity of microbial community in activated sludge, and fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis indicated that the abundance of nitrifying bacteria, especially ammonia-oxidizing bacteria, was highly decreased after long-term exposure to 50 mg/L TiO(2) NPs, which was the main reason for the serious deterioration of ammonia oxidation. Further study revealed that 50 mg/L TiO(2) NPs inhibited the activities of ammonia monooxygenase and nitrite oxidoreductase after long-term exposure, but had no significant impacts on the activities of exopolyphosphatase and polyphosphate kinase, and the transformations of intracellular polyhydroxyalkanoates and glycogen, which were consistent with the observed influences of TiO(2) NPs on biological nitrogen and phosphorus removal.

Effects of ZnO nanoparticles on wastewater biological nitrogen and phosphorus removal.

With the increasing utilization of nanomaterials, zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) have been reported to induce adverse effects on human health and aquatic organisms. However, the potential impacts of ZnO NPs on wastewater nitrogen and phosphorus removal with an activated sludge process are unknown. In this paper, short-term exposure experiments were conducted to determine whether ZnO NPs caused adverse impacts on biological nitrogen and phosphorus removal in the unacclimated anaerobic-low dissolved oxygen sequencing batch reactor. Compared with the absence of ZnO NPs, the presence of 10 and 50 mg/L of ZnO NPs decreased total nitrogen removal efficiencies from 81.5% to 75.6% and 70.8%, respectively. The corresponding effluent phosphorus concentrations increased from nondetectable to 10.3 and 16.5 mg/L, respectively, which were higher than the influent phosphorus (9.8 mg/L), suggesting that higher concentration of ZnO NPs induced the loss of normal phosphorus removal. It was found that the inhibition of nitrogen and phosphorus removal induced by higher concentrations of ZnO NPs was due to the release of zinc ions from ZnO NPs dissolution and increase of reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, which caused inhibitory effect on polyphosphate-accumulating organisms and decreased nitrate reductase, exopolyphosphatase, and polyphosphate kinase activities.

Reduction of N2O and NO generation in anaerobic-aerobic (low dissolved oxygen) biological wastewater treatment process by using sludge alkaline fermentation liquid.

This paper reported an efficient method to significantly reduce nitrous oxide (N(2)O) and nitric oxide (NO) generation in anaerobic-aerobic (low dissolved oxygen) processes. It was found that by the use of waste-activated sludge alkaline fermentation liquid as the synthetic wastewater-carbon source, compared with the commonly used carbon source in the literature (e.g., acetic acid), the generation of N(2)O and NO was reduced by 68.7% and 50.0%, respectively, but the removal efficiencies of total phosphorus (TP) and total nitrogen (TN) were improved. Both N(2)O and NO were produced in the low dissolved oxygen (DO) stage, and the use of sludge fermentation liquid greatly reduced their generation from the denitrification. The presences of Cu(2+) and propionic acid in fermentation liquid were observed to play an important role in the reduction of N(2)O and NO generation. The analysis of the activities of denitrifying enzymes suggested that sludge fermentation liquid caused the significant decrease of both nitrite reductase activity to NO reductase activity ratio and NO reductase activity to N(2)O reductase activity ratio, which resulted in the lower generation of NO and N(2)O. Fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis indicated that the number of glycogen accumulating bacteria, which was reported to be relevant to nitrous oxide generation, in sludge fermentation liquid reactor was much lower than that in acetic acid reactor. The quantitative detection of the nosZ gene, encoding nitrous oxide reductase, showed that the use of fermentation liquid increased the number of bacteria capable of reducing N(2)O to N(2). The feasibility of using sludge fermentation liquid to reduce NO and N(2)O generation in an anaerobic-low DO process was finally confirmed for a municipal wastewater.