Abstract
To clarify the characteristics of compounds with strong or weak nitrification inhibition in sewage, 64 organic compounds including compounds registered in Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (PRTR) were evaluated in terms of their chemical structures and molecular weights. Nineteen compounds showed strong nitrification inhibition by testing with Nitrosomonas europaea. Compounds with thioamide structures had the lowest median value of EC50 (0.017 mg/L), followed by those with alkyne structures (0.121 mg/L), chlorophenol structures (0.300 mg/L), and then azole structures (0.365 mg/L). In contrast, 33 of the 64 compounds showed weak nitrification inhibition at a concentration of 10 mg/L, 27 of which were categorized into three main groups: long-chain alcohol structures, alkyne structures with a phenyl group, and aromatic structures. Most compounds with strong nitrification inhibition had a low molecular weight (MW) from 50 to 200. Meanwhile, the proportion of compounds with weak nitrification inhibition tended to be greater with increasing MW and such compounds were predominant at higher molecular weights above 300. The correlations of results derived from tests of nitrification inhibition based on ISO 9509 and N. europaea showed that 24 out of 30 compounds provided results that were highly correlated between these tests (R = 0.85), while 4 compounds with chlorophenol structures and 2 compounds with alkyne structures showed weaker inhibition rates in the ISO 9509 test than in the N. europaea test. Our results indicate that the magnitude of nitrification inhibition depends on MW in addition to the chemical structure, which is helpful in the search for the cause of nitrification inhibition in wastewater treatment plants.
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The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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We would like to thank Dr. Yuki Nishigaya (AgroDesign Studios) for technical advice. We would also like to thank Mie Harada and Michiko Okubo (Public Works Research Institute) for technical assistance.
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Part of this research was supported by Gesuido Ouyou Kenkyuu (FY2019-2020) of the Sewerage and Wastewater Management Department, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transportation, and Tourism of Japan.
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Satomi Mizukami-Murata: conceptualization and design of study, methodology, investigation, writing—original draft preparation. Atsushi Sawai, Yasushi Goto, and Misa Toda: design of study and analysis of nitrification activity assay with sewage sludge (ISO 9509). Ikuo Tsushima: design of study and analysis of next-generation sequencing. Yuji Suzuki and Hirokazu Takanashi: conceptualization and design of study, supervision, writing—reviewing and editing. Hiromasa Yamashita: writing—reviewing and editing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Mizukami-Murata, S., Takanashi, H., Sawai, A. et al. Characteristics of compounds with strong or weak nitrification inhibition in sewage. Environ Monit Assess 195, 1437 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-023-12074-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-023-12074-z