Dataset Information

Co-Occurrence and Cooperation between Comammox and Anammox Bacteria in a Full-Scale Attached Growth Municipal Wastewater Treatment Process.

ABSTRACT: Cooperation between comammox and anammox bacteria for nitrogen removal has been recently reported in laboratory-scale systems, including synthetic community constructs; however, there are no reports of full-scale municipal wastewater treatment systems with such cooperation. Here, we report intrinsic and extant kinetics as well as genome-resolved community characterization of a full-scale integrated fixed film activated sludge (IFAS) system where comammox and anammox bacteria co-occur and appear to drive nitrogen loss. Intrinsic batch kinetic assays indicated that majority of the aerobic ammonia oxidation was driven by comammox bacteria (1.75 ± 0.08 mg-N/g TS-h) in the attached growth phase, with minimal contribution by ammonia-oxidizing bacteria. Interestingly, a portion of total inorganic nitrogen (∼8%) was consistently lost during these aerobic assays. Aerobic nitrite oxidation assays eliminated the possibility of denitrification as a cause of nitrogen loss, while anaerobic ammonia oxidation assays resulted in rates consistent with anammox stoichiometry. Full-scale experiments at different dissolved oxygen (DO = 2 - 6 mg/L) setpoints indicated persistent nitrogen loss that was partly sensitive to DO concentrations. Genome-resolved metagenomics confirmed the high abundance (relative abundance 6.53 ± 0.34%) of two Brocadia-like anammox populations, while comammox bacteria within the Ca. Nitrospira nitrosa cluster were lower in abundance (0.37 ± 0.03%) and Nitrosomonas-like ammonia oxidizers were even lower (0.12 ± 0.02%). Collectively, our study reports for the first time the co-occurrence and cooperation of comammox and anammox bacteria in a full-scale municipal wastewater treatment system.

SUBMITTER: Vilardi K

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10061930 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Co-Occurrence and Cooperation between Comammox and Anammox Bacteria in a Full-Scale Attached Growth Municipal Wastewater Treatment Process.

Vilardi Katherine K Cotto Irmarie I Bachmann Megan M Parsons Mike M Klaus Stephanie S Wilson Christopher C Bott Charles B CB Pieper Kelsey J KJ Pinto Ameet J AJ

Environmental science & technology 20230313 12

Cooperation between comammox and anammox bacteria for nitrogen removal has been recently reported in laboratory-scale systems, including synthetic community constructs; however, there are no reports of full-scale municipal wastewater treatment systems with such cooperation. Here, we report intrinsic and extant kinetics as well as genome-resolved community characterization of a full-scale integrated fixed film activated sludge (IFAS) system where comammox and anammox bacteria co-occur and appear ...[more]

PMID: 36913533

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Project description:Direct treatment of municipal wastewater (MWW) based on anaerobic ammonium oxidizing (anammox) bacteria holds promise to turn the energy balance of wastewater treatment neutral or even positive. Currently, anammox processes are successfully implemented at full scale for the treatment of high-strength wastewaters, whereas the possibility of their mainstream application still needs to be confirmed. In this study, the growth of anammox organisms on aerobically pre-treated municipal wastewater (MWW(pre-treated)), amended with nitrite, was proven in three parallel reactors. The reactors were operated at total N concentrations in the range 5-20 mg(N)∙L(-1), as expected for MWW. Anammox activities up to 465 mg(N)∙L(-1)∙d(-1) were reached at 29 °C, with minimum doubling times of 18 d. Lowering the temperature to 12.5 °C resulted in a marked decrease in activity to 46 mg(N)∙L(-1)∙d(-1) (79 days doubling time), still in a reasonable range for autotrophic nitrogen removal from MWW. During the experiment, the biomass evolved from a suspended growth inoculum to a hybrid system with suspended flocs and wall-attached biofilm. At the same time, MWW(pre-treated) had a direct impact on process performance. Changing the influent from synthetic medium to MWW(pre-treated) resulted in a two-month delay in net anammox growth and a two to three-fold increase in the estimated doubling times of the anammox organisms. Interestingly, anammox remained the primary nitrogen consumption route, and high-throughput 16S rRNA gene-targeted amplicon sequencing analyses revealed that the shift in performance was not associated with a shift in dominant anammox bacteria ("Candidatus Brocadia fulgida"). Furthermore, only limited heterotrophic denitrification was observed in the presence of easily biodegradable organics (acetate, glucose). The observed delays in net anammox growth were thus ascribed to the acclimatization of the initial anammox population or/and the development of a side population beneficial for them. Additionally, by combining microautoradiography and fluorescence in situ hybridization it was confirmed that the anammox organisms involved in the process did not directly incorporate or store the amended acetate and glucose. In conclusion, these investigations strongly support the feasibility of MWW treatment via anammox.

Project description:Despite many modern wastewater treatment solutions, the most common is still the use of activated sludge (AS). Studies indicate that the microbial composition of AS is most often influenced by the raw sewage composition (especially influent ammonia), biological oxygen demand, the level of dissolved oxygen, technological solutions, as well as the temperature of wastewater related to seasonality. The available literature mainly refers to the relationship between AS parameters or the technology used and the composition of microorganisms in AS. However, there is a lack of data on the groups of microorganisms leaching into water bodies whose presence is a signal for possible changes in treatment technology. Moreover, sludge flocs in the outflow contain less extracellular substance (EPS) which interferes microbial identification. The novelty of this article concerns the identification and quantification of microorganisms in the AS and in the outflow by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) method from two full-scale wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in terms of 4 key groups of microorganisms involved in the wastewater treatment process in the context of their potential technological usefulness. The results of the study showed that Nitrospirae, Chloroflexi and Ca. Accumulibacter phosphatis in treated wastewater reflect the trend in abundance of these bacteria in activated sludge. Increased abundance of betaproteobacterial ammonia-oxidizing bacteria and Nitrospirae in the outflow were observed in winter. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that loadings obtained from abundance of bacteria in the outflow made larger contributions to the variance in the PC1 factorial axis, than loadings obtained from abundance of bacteria from activated sludge. PCA confirmed the reasonableness of conducting studies not only in the activated sludge, but also in the outflow to find correlations between technological problems and qualitative and quantitative changes in the outflow microorganisms.

Project description:This study investigated the potential of Membrane-Aerated Biofilm Reactors (MABRs) for mainstream nitrogen removal via partial nitration/anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox). Four laboratory-scale MABRs were operated with real municipal wastewater characterized by low concentrations of nitrogen (varying between 31 and 120 mg-NH4-N L-1) and the presence of biodegradable organic carbon (soluble COD (sCOD) between 7 and 230 mg-O2 L-1). Two reactors were operated with different aeration strategies (intermittent vs. continuous), the other two with differences in biomass retention (recirculation or removal of detached biomass). Keeping a constant HRT caused instabilities due to difficulties with setting the optimal oxygen flux for the respective surface loadings (1.6-6 g-NH4-N m-2 d-1). Operating the MABRs with a constant surface loading (2 g-NH4-N m-2 d-1) resulted in higher and more stable total nitrogen (TN) removal independent of the aeration strategy. The intermittently aerated MABR improved from an average TN removal of 23%-69%, the continuously aerated MABR from 20% to 50% TN removal. Independent of the feeding strategy, the continuously aerated reactor removed slightly more ammonium (80-95%) compared to the intermittently aerated reactor (74-93%). Limiting the oxygen supply by intermittent aeration proofed successful to favor partial nitritation and anammox. Continuous aeration did not achieve stable suppression of nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB). Of the removed ammonium, approx. 26% were left in the effluent as nitrate (only 10% with intermittent aeration). Recirculation of the detached biomass resulted in reattachment onto the biofilm or membrane surface. This recirculation led to significantly higher biomass retention times and thus to better performance. Removing detached biofilm from the reactor caused a slightly lower TN removal of 33% compared to 45% with reattachment, while average ammonium removal was 58% compared to 63%, respectively. Scouring events had a significant impact on the overall operation, resulting in short term losses of TN removal capacities of 50-100%. The microbial community composition was different depending on the aeration strategy and biomass retention. The continuously aerated reactor contained significantly more AOB than the intermittently aerated MABR. The reactor with biomass retention contained less ammonium oxidizing bacteria (AOB), compared to the reactor with low biomass retention. In all MABRs, anammox bacteria established in the biofilm after an initial drop in abundance.

Dataset Information

Co-Occurrence and Cooperation between Comammox and Anammox Bacteria in a Full-Scale Attached Growth Municipal Wastewater Treatment Process.

Publications

Co-Occurrence and Cooperation between Comammox and Anammox Bacteria in a Full-Scale Attached Growth Municipal Wastewater Treatment Process.

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