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Partial anammox achieved in full scale biofilm process for typical domestic wastewater treatment

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Abstract

The slow initiation of anammox for treating typical domestic wastewater and the relatively high footprint of wastewater treatment infrastructures are major concerns for practical wastewater treatment systems. Herein, a 300 m3/d hybrid biofilm reactor (HBR) process was developed and operated with a short hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 8 h. The analysis of the bacterial community demonstrated that anammox were enriched in the anoxic zone of the HBR process. The percentage abundance of Candidatus Brocadia in the total bacterial community of the anoxic zone increased from 0 at Day 1 to 0.33% at Day 130 and then to 2.89% at Day 213. Based upon the activity of anammox bacteria, the removal of ammonia nitrogen (NH4+-N) in the anoxic zone was approximately 15%. This showed that the nitrogen transformation pathway was enhanced in the HBR system through partial anammox process in the anoxic zone. The final effluent contained 12 mg/L chemical oxygen demand (COD), 0.662 mg/L NH4+-N, 7.2 mg/L total nitrogen (TN), and 6 mg/L SS, indicating the effectiveness of the HBR process for treating real domestic wastewater.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by The Major Science and Technology Program for Water Pollution Control and Treatment (Ministry of Ecology and Environment, China) (No. 2017ZX07103-003) and seed fund for Beijing Young Engineering, China. The authors would also like to thank Dr. Jian Tian, Feifei Guan, Hongping Yang, Zixuan Zhang and Huiyu Qu for their kind help and suggestions during the research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. China Water Environment Group Co. Ltd., Beijing, 101101, China

    Feng Hou, Ting Zhang, Xiaoxin Cao, Hongtao Pang, Yanqing Shao, Xianchun Lu, Ju Yuan & Jin Zhang

  2. National Engineering Laboratory for Advanced Municipal Wastewater Treatment and Reuse Technology, Beijing, 100124, China

    Feng Hou, Ting Zhang, Yongzhen Peng, Xiaoxin Cao, Hongtao Pang, Yanqing Shao & Xianchun Lu

  3. Department of Energy and Environmental Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, 100124, China

    Yongzhen Peng

  4. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA

    Xi Chen

Authors
  1. Feng Hou
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  2. Ting Zhang
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  3. Yongzhen Peng
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  4. Xiaoxin Cao
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  5. Hongtao Pang
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  6. Yanqing Shao
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  7. Xianchun Lu
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  8. Ju Yuan
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  9. Xi Chen
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  10. Jin Zhang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xiaoxin Cao.

Additional information

Highlights

• A full scale biofilm process was developed for typical domestic wastewater treatment.

• The HRT was 8 h and secondary sedimentation tank was omitted.

• Candidatus Brocadia were enriched in the HBR with an abundance of 2.89%.

• Anammox enabled a stable ammonium removal of ∼15% in the anoxic zone.

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Hou, F., Zhang, T., Peng, Y. et al. Partial anammox achieved in full scale biofilm process for typical domestic wastewater treatment. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng. 16, 33 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-021-1467-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-021-1467-6

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