Effect of feed starvation on side-stream anammox activity and key microbial populations.

The anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) process is widely acknowledged to be susceptible to a wide range of environmental factors given the slow growth rate of the anammox bacteria. Surprisingly there is limited experimental data regarding the susceptibility of the anammox process to feed starvations which may be encountered in full-scale applications. Therefore, a study was established to investigate the impact of feed starvations on nitritation and anammox activity in a demonstration-scale sequencing batch reactor. Three starvation periods were trialled, lasting one fortnight (15 d), one month (33 d) and two months (62 d). Regardless of the duration of the starvation period, assessment of the ammonia removal performance demonstrated nitritation and anammox activity were reinstated within one day of recovery operation. Characterisation of the community structure using 16S rRNA and functional genes specific for nitrogen-related microbes showed there was no clear impact or shift in the microbial populations between starvation and recovery phases.

Evaluation of granular sludge for secondary treatment of saline municipal sewage.

This study examined the impact of chemical oxygen demand (COD) loading and dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration on the stability and performance of granular sludge treating high saline municipal sewage. Under high DO concentrations of 4.0-7.0 mg/L, and COD loading rates of 0.98 and 1.55 kg/m(3)/d, rapid settling granules were established within four weeks of start-up. Under the highest COD load, a reduction in DO lead to the rapid deterioration of the sludge volume index (SVI) and washout of granules due to prolific growth of the filament Thiothrix Type 021N. Conversely, when operated under a lower COD load, a reduction in DO concentration had no adverse impact on the stability of SVI and granules. A decrease in DO also improved nitrogen removal performance, where simultaneous removal of ammonium (98%), total nitrogen (86%) and BOD5 (98%) were achieved when median DO concentrations were between 1.0 and 1.5 mg/L. Phosphate removal was lower than expected, however the level of biological phosphate removal activity observed appeared sufficient to maintain granule stability, even under low DO concentrations. Nitrous oxide emissions were also characterised, which ranged between 2.3 and 6.8% of the total nitrogen load. Our results confirmed that granular sludge is a viable option for the treatment of saline sewage.