Recent developments in anammox-based membrane bioreactors: A review

The anammox-based process has been considered a promising biological nitrogen elimination method for the treatment of nitrogen-rich wastewater ever since its discovery 40 years ago. However, the slow growth rate of anammox bacteria and severe sludge washout result in a long startup period and limit its widespread industrial application. A membrane bioreactor (MBR) is considered an ideal reactor for the operation of the anammox-based process because the membranes allow for 100 % biomass retention. According to a systematic review of the literature, anammox-based MBR is becoming a research hotspot in the field of nitrogen wastewater treatment. The fundamental understanding of anammox-based MBR and its membrane fouling situation is essential for the development and application of anammox-based MBR. In this paper, the application of MBR in different kinds of anammox process are reviewed. The membrane fouling mechanism and strategies to control membrane fouling are also proposed. It is expected that this review will serve as an invaluable guide for future research and in the engineering applications of anammox-based MBR process.

Challenges, solutions and prospects of mainstream anammox-based process for municipal wastewater treatment

Anaerobic ammonia oxidation (anammox) process has a promising application prospect for the mainstream deammonification of municipal wastewater due to its high efficiency and low energy consumption. In this paper, challenges and solutions of mainstream anammox-based process are summarized by analyzing the literature of recent ten years. Slow growth rate of anammox bacteria is a main challenge for mainstream anammox-based process, and enhancement of bacteria retention has been recognized to be necessary. Compared with directly increasing sludge retention time (SRT) with membrane bioreactors or sequencing batch reactors, culturing anammox bacteria in the form of biofilm or granule sludge is more promising for its feasibility of eliminating nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB). Besides, adding external electron donors or conductive materials and enriching the concentration of ammonia with absorption materials have also been proved helpful to improve the activity of anammox bacteria. Other challenges include the elimination of NOB and achieving ideal ratio of NH₄⁺ and NO₂^-. To solve these problems and achieve stable partial nitrification, composite control strategies based on low SRT and limited aeration are needed based on the special characteristics of ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and NOB. When treating actual wastewater, interference of low temperature and components in the influent is another problem. Relatively high activity of anammox bacteria has been realized after artificial acclimation at low temperature and the mechanism was also preliminary explored. Different pre-treatment sections have been designed to reduce the concentration of COD and S^2- from the influent. As for the nitrate produced by the anammox reaction, coupling processes are useful to reduce the concentration of nitrate in the effluent. In brief, suitable reactor and coupling process should be selected according to the temperature, influent quality and discharge targets of different regions. The future prospects of the mainstream anammox-based process are also put forward.

Combination of biodegradation and fenton process for efficient removal of PDM/ZnO

In the present study, an investigation was conducted on the removal of polydiallyldimethylammonium chloride-acrylic-acrylamide-hydroxyethyl acrylate/ZnO nanocomposites (PDM/ZnO) through biodegradation and Fenton process coupled treatments. As revealed from the results of the chemical oxygen demand, the total organic carbon, the biochemical oxygen demand and the CO₂ production analysis, PDM/ZnO could be partially biodegraded. The optimal initial pH, the mixed liquid suspended solids concentration and additional carbon source (glucose) dosage in the biodegradation were 7.0, 4.0 g/L and 1.0 g/L, respectively. On the whole, NaCl, the coexisted metal cations (Cu²⁺, Zn²⁺ and Cr³⁺) and additional NH₄Cl inhibited the biodegradation of PDM/ZnO. PDM/ZnO was suggested to adversely affect on microbial community structure and activity. Optimum conditions for Fenton treatment were 50 mg/L Fe²⁺, 20 mL/L H₂O₂ and pH 2.0. Biodegradation showed that 64% of PDM/ZnO was removed. Besides, the combination of Fenton post-treatment could achieve an over 97% removal of PDM/ZnO. Thus, Fenton process combined biodegradation pre-treatment can act as an effective method to remove PDM/ZnO.

Anammox bacteria enrichment and denitrification in moving bed biofilm reactors packed with different buoyant carriers: Performances and mechanisms

Anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) is recognized as the most cost-effective process for nitrogen removal from wastewater. In this study, effects of polyethylene plastics, nonwoven fabric, granular activated carbon (GAC) and polyurethane sponge as buoyant carriers were evaluated in lab-scale moving bed biofilm reactors (MBBRs). The overall performance of MBBRs with four types of carriers from priority to inferiority was noticed as, GAC, nonwoven fabrics, polyurethane sponge and polyethylene plastics under the same packing ratio of 20 v% and an average carrier size of 4 × 4 × 4 mm. The hydrophobic surface of GAC could selectively adsorb hydrophobic protein and favor anammox bacteria attachment, which contributed to achieving a total nitrogen removal rate of 0.40 kg-N/(m³·d) in 60 days. In conclusion, our results provide compelling evidence for achieving effective anammox process in an MBBR with GAC carriers and would benefit towards accomplishing a stable partial nitritation-anammox process in the future.

Anammox biomass carrying efficiency of polyethylene non-woven sheets as a carrier material

To access the effects of the surface modification and fabric structure of polyethylene (PE) non-woven fabric sheets on retaining the attachment efficiency of anammox biomass, three different non-woven sheets were prepared and inserted in an anammox reactor. The hydrophobic surface modification with 10% KMnO₄ and gelatin did not improve the attachment efficiency of the anammox biomass on the surface of the PE non-woven fibers. Densely packed PE-755 having the highest specific surface area to volume ratio (SA/V) (755) retained 221.4 mg biomass per unit sheet, whereas PE-181 having the lowest SA/V (181) retained only 66.4 mg biomass per unit. Accordingly, the volumetric anammox activity of non-woven sheet PE-755 was the highest among the three PE non-woven sheets because of the strong positive relationship between the specific anammox activity and biomass amount (R = 0.835, P < .01). The specific surface area to volume ratio (cm² cm^-3) as well as the bulk density should be considered as important parameters for the selection of non-woven biocarriers for anammox biomass.

Microbial dynamics of biofilm and suspended flocs in anammox membrane bioreactor: The effect of non-woven fabric membrane

Membrane bioreactor with non-woven fabric membranes (NWMBR) is developing into a suitable method for anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox). As a carrier, non-woven fabric membrane divided total biomass into biofilm and suspended flocs gradually. Total nitrogen removal efficiency was maintained around 82.6% under nitrogen loading rate of 567.4mgN/L/d after 260days operation. Second-order substrate removal and Stover-Kincannon models were successfully used to simulate the nitrogen removal performance in NWMBR. High-throughput sequence was employed to elucidate the underlying microbial community dynamics. Candidatus Brocadia, Kuenenia, Jettenia were detected to affirm the dominant status of anammox microorganisms and 98.2% of anammox microorganisms distributed in biofilm. In addition, abundances of functional genes (hzs, nirK) in biofilm and suspended flocs were assessed by quantitative PCR to further investigate the coexistence of anammox and other microorganisms. Potential nitrogen removal pathways were established according to relevant nitrogen removal performance and microbial community.

Phenol biodegradation and microbial community dynamics in extractive membrane bioreactor (EMBR) for phenol-laden saline wastewater

An extractive membrane bioreactor (EMBR) for phenol-laden saline wastewater was set up in this study to investigate the variations of phenol removal, extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) release and microbial community dynamics. The gradual release of phenol and the total separation of salt were achieved by silicon rubber tube membrane. Only phenol (55.6-273.9mg/L) was extracted into microorganism unit from wastewaters containing 1.0-5.0g/L phenol and 35.0g/L NaCl. After 82d of EMBR operation, maximal 273.9mg/L of phenol was removed in EMBR. Low concentration of phenol in wastewater (2.5g/L) played a favorable effect on the microbial community structure, community and dynamics. The enumeration of Proteobacteria (30,499 sequences) significantly increased with more released EPS (82.82mg/gSS) to absorb and degrade phenol, compared to the virgin data without phenol addition. However, high concentration of phenol showed adverse effects on EPS release, microbial abundance and biodiversity.

Reduction of greenhouse gases emissions during anoxic wastewater treatment by strengthening nitrite-dependent anaerobic methane oxidation process

Nitrite-dependent anaerobic methane oxidation (n-damo) is a recently discovered process performed by NC10 phylum, which plays an important role in greenhouse gases (GHG) reduction. In this study, co-existence of n-damo bacteria and methanogens was successfully achieved by using upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor. Reactor with inorganic carbon source (CO₂/H₂) showed the highest abundance of n-damo bacteria and the highest n-damo potential activity, resulted in its highest nitrogen removal rate. Significant reduction in GHG was obtained after introduction of n-damo process, especially for N₂O. Furthermore, GHG emissions decreased with the increase of n-damo bacteria abundance. Community structure analysis found carbon source could influence the diversity of n-damo bacteria indirectly. And phylogenetic analysis showed that all the obtained sequences were assigned to group B, mainly due to in situ production and consumption of CH₄.

Effects of substrates on N2O emissions in an anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) reactor

N2O emission in the anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) process is of growing concern. In this study, effects of substrate concentrations on N2O emissions were investigated in an anammox reactor. Extremely high N2O emissions of 1.67 % were led by high NH4-N concentrations. Results showed that N2O emissions have a positive correlation with NH4-N concentrations in the anammox reactor. Reducing NH4-N concentrations by recycling pump resulted in decreasing N2O emissions. In addition, further studies were performed to identify a key biological process that is contributed to N2O emissions from the anammox reactor. Based on the results obtained, Nitrosomonas, which can oxidize ammonia to nitrite, was deemed as the main sources of N2O emissions.

The effect of magnetite on the start-up and N2O emission reduction of the anammox process

A reactor combined with magnetite could enhance the anammox performance and enrich morePlanctomycetesbacteria.