Accessible mixotrophic growth of denitrifying sulfide removal consortium

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2015.03.017

Bioresource Technology

Volume 185, June 2015, Pages 362-367

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2015.03.017 Get rights and content

Highlights

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Denitrifying sulfide removal (DSR) consortium was mixotrophically grown.
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DSR performance was recorded at varying feed concentrations.
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Accessible regimes of kinetic diagram were identified.
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Example of using the DSR diagram was provided.

Abstract

Nitrate, sulfide and organic matters in wastewaters can be removed simultaneously by denitrifying sulfide removal (DSR) process. Complicated interactions between different microbial groups in the DSR medium render the process design and control difficult to implement. A consortium with DSR activity was grown mixotrophically at varying concentrations of nitrate, acetate or ammonium. The kinetic diagram previously proposed was adopted to quantitatively represent DSR performance with accessible regimes of the diagram being identified. Example on the use of the so-yielded accessible regime was provided.

Introduction

The denitrifying sulfide removal (DSR) process simultaneously converts organic matters to carbon dioxide, nitrate to nitrogen gas, and sulfide to elementary sulfur (Show et al., 2013). The DSR reactions were proposed to be completed by synergetic growth of autotrophic denitrifiers and heterotrophic denitrifiers (Gommers et al., 1988, Reyes-Avila et al., 2004, Sierra-Alvarez et al., 2005, Chen et al., 2008a, Chen et al., 2008b, Chen et al., 2009). Efforts were made to enhance DSR performance by adding trace dissolved oxygen (Chen et al., 2010a, Chen et al., 2010b). Methanogenic granular sludge was converted to the DSR granules to speed up the cultivation process (Zhou et al., 2011a, Zhou et al., 2011b). DSR strains can work with sulfate-reducing bacteria for treatment of sulfate + nitrate + organic matter wastewaters (Chen et al., 2014). Facultative autotrophic denitrifiers were applied for DSR reactions for enhanced process stability and sustained performance (Chen et al., 2013, Lee et al., 2013).

Mechanisms for DSR reactions were proposed and simulated (Lee and Wong, 2014a, Xu et al., 2013, Xu et al., 2014). The enzyme systems corresponding to a facultative autotrophic bacterium (FAB) were explored (Guo et al., 2013, Guo et al., 2014a, Guo et al., 2014b). In particular, Lee and Wong (2014b) proposed a novel kinetic diagram as an instructive graphic method for interpreting the studied DSR systems. This work is a continuation of the work by Lee and Wong (2014b) for investigating the effects of feed compositions on DSR performance based on kinetic diagram constructed.

Section snippets

Media, strains and tests

For comparison sake, this study used the same consortium by Lee and Wong (2014b), which is an enriched DSR consortium. The mixotrophic media at pH 9 was (per liter): 0.755 g of KNO₃, 1.5 g of Na₂S·9H₂O, 0.25 g of NH₄Cl, 0.05 g of K₂HPO₄, 1.5 g of NaHCO₃, 0.44 g of CH₃COONa·3H₂O, 1 ml of traces element solution (Pfennig and Lippert, 1966). Before tests, the solution and the headspace of bottles were purged with helium gas. Resazurin was added to probe the presence of dissolved oxygen (DO) in the

Effects of acetate concentration at 180 mg-S²⁻ l⁻¹ sulfide and 110 mg-N l⁻¹ nitrate

In this section, concentrations of acetate were varied with fixed sulfide and nitrate concentrations. After a lag phase, DSR reactions occurred with the consortium during 30–70 h. The fed sulfide was completely consumed only with 200 mg l⁻¹ acetate feed (Fig. 1a). Correspondingly, all fed acetate was consumed with <200 mg l⁻¹ feed concentration (Fig. 1b). With >200 mg l⁻¹ acetate, up to 40 mg-N l⁻¹ nitrate was left in the final solution (Fig. 1c). With 50–100 mg l⁻¹ acetate feed, nitrate, nitrite and

Conclusions

This study conducted anaerobic DSR tests with an enriched DSR consortium at varying feed compositions. Based on fed sulfide, tests with 39.7% excess nitrate and −80% to +140% excess acetate, and those with 60% excess acetate and −68% to +130% excess nitrate were performed to identify accessible regimes on the kinetic diagram including maximum sulfur recovery regimes. Demonstration of the use of the proposed diagram showed the feasibility to easy assessment of DSR system performance by the

Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by National Science Council and National Taiwan University.

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Accessible mixotrophic growth of denitrifying sulfide removal consortium

Highlights

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Media, strains and tests

Effects of acetate concentration at 180 mg-S2− l−1 sulfide and 110 mg-N l−1 nitrate

Conclusions

Acknowledgements

Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol.

Bioresour. Technol.

Process Biochem.

J. Hazard. Mater.

Bioresour. Technol.

Bioresour. Technol.

J. Chromatogr. B Analyt. Technol. Biomed. Life Sci.

Water Res.

Enzyme Microb. Technol.

Enzyme Microb. Technol.

Bioresour. Technol

Bioresour. Technol.

Bioresour. Technol.

Effects of acetate concentration at 180 mg-S²⁻ l⁻¹ sulfide and 110 mg-N l⁻¹ nitrate