Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Characterization of a novel micro-pressure swirl reactor for removal of chemical oxygen demand and total nitrogen from domestic wastewater at low temperature

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Biodegradation Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

 A novel micro-pressure swirl reactor (MPSR) was designed and applied to treat domestic wastewater at low temperature by acclimating microbial biomass with steadily decreasing temperature from 15 to 3 °C. Chemical oxygen demand (COD) was constantly removed by 85% and maintained below 50 mg L−1 in the effluent during the process. When the air flow was controlled at 0.2 m3 h−1, a swirl circulation was formed in the reactor, which created a dissolved oxygen (DO) gradient with a low DO zone in the center and a high DO zone in the periphery for denitrification and nitrification. 81% of total nitrogen was removed by this reactor, in which ammonium was reduced by over 90%. However, denitrification was less effective because of the presence of low levels of oxygen. The progressively decreasing temperature favored acclimation of psychrophilic bacteria in the reactor, which replaced mesophilic bacteria in the process of treatment.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

Abbreviations

MPSR:

Micro-pressure swirl reactor

COD:

Chemical oxygen demand

TN:

Total nitrogen

DO:

Dissolved oxygen

A/A/O:

Anaerobic/anoxic/oxic process

A/O:

Anoxic/oxic process

SBR:

Sequence batch reactor

MLSS:

Mixed liquor suspended solids

OUR:

Oxygen uptake rate

PCR:

Polymerase chain reaction

DGGE:

Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis

References

  • Alawi M, Lipski A, Sanders T, Spieck E (2007) Cultivation of a novel cold-adapted nitrite oxidizing betaproteobacterium from the Siberian Arctic. ISME J 1(3):256–264

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Alkaya E, Demirer GN (2011) Anaerobic acidification of sugar-beet processing wastes: effect of operational parameters. Biomass Bioenergy 35(1):32–39

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Apha A (2007) Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater. APHA, AWWA & WEF

  • Araseki H, Preslitsky GV, Ogorodnikov AP (2004) Magnetohydrodynamic instability in annular linear induction pump part I: experiment and numerical analysis. Nucl Eng Des 227(1):29–50

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Arjoon A, Olaniran AO, Pillay B (2013) Enhanced 1, 2-dichloroethane degradation in heavy metal co-contaminated wastewater undergoing biostimulation and bioaugmentation. Chemosphere 93(9):1826–1834

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bian D, Zhou D, Huo M, Ren Q, Tian X, Wan L, Zhu S, Ai S (2015) Improving oxygen dissolution and distribution in a bioreactor with enhanced simultaneous COD and nitrogen removal by simply introducing micro-pressure and swirl. Appl Microbial Biot 99(20):8741–8749

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Boyd CE (1998) Pond water aeration systems. Aquacult Eng 18(1):9–40

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen JC, Uan DK (2013) Low dissolved oxygen membrane bioreactor processes (LDO-MBRs): a review. Int J Environ Eng 5(2):129–149

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen Q, Ni J, Ma T, Liu T, Zheng M (2015) Bioaugmentation treatment of municipal wastewater with heterotrophic-aerobic nitrogen removal bacteria in a pilot-scale SBR. Bioresour Technol 183:25–32

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Choi E, Rhu D, Yun Z, Lee E (1998) Temperature effects on biological nutrient removal system with weak municipal wastewater. Water Sci Technol 37(9):219–226

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cong H, Huang T, Chai B (2010) Water-circulating aerator: optimizing structure and predicting water flow rate and oxygen transfer. J Hydraul Eng 137(6):659–667

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dawson R, Murphy K (1973) Factors affecting biological deniftrification of wastewater. In: Advances in water pollution research proceedings of the international conference, London

  • De Kreuk M, Pronk M, Van Loosdrecht M (2005) Formation of aerobic granules and conversion processes in an aerobic granular sludge reactor at moderate and low temperatures. Water Res 39(18):4476–4484

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Delatolla R, Tufenkji N, Comeau Y, Gadbois A, Lamarre D, Berk D (2012) Effects of long exposure to low temperatures on nitrifying biofilm and biomass in wastewater treatment. Water Environ Res-A 84(4):328–338

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Dong Y, Hung YT (1985) Effect of temperature on oxygen transfer rate in wastewater treatment. Int J Environ Stud 24(2):125–135

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Guo J, Peng Y, Wang S, Zheng YN, Huang H, Wang Z (2009) Long-term effect of dissolved oxygen on partial nitrification performance and microbial community structure. Bioresour Technol 100(11):2796–2802

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Henze M (2002) Wastewater treatment: biological and chemical processes. Springer, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hesham AE-L, Qi R, Yang M (2011) Comparison of bacterial community structures in two systems of a sewage treatment plant using PCR-DGGE analysis. J Environ Sci-China 23(12):2049–2054

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hesselmann RP, Werlen C, Hahn D, van der Meer JR, Zehnder AJ (1999) Enrichment, phylogenetic analysis and detection of a bacterium that performs enhanced biological phosphate removal in activated sludge. Syst Appl Microbiol 22(3):454–465

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Julián I, Gallucci F, van Sint Annaland M, Herguido J, Menéndez M (2012) Coupled PIV/DIA for fluid dynamics studies on a two-section two-zone fluidized bed reactor. Chem Eng J 207–208:122–132

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kanagawa T, Kamagata Y, Aruga S, Kohno T, Horn M, Wagner M (2000) Phylogenetic analysis of and oligonucleotide probe development for Eikelboom type 021N filamentous bacteria isolated from bulking activated sludge. Appl Environ Microb 66(11):5043–5052

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kazakis NA, Mouza AA, Paras SV (2008) Experimental study of bubble formation at metal porous spargers: effect of liquid properties and sparger characteristics on the initial bubble size distribution. Chem Eng J 137(2):265–281

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kim YM, Chon D-H, Kim H-S, Park C (2012) Investigation of bacterial community in activated sludge with an anaerobic side-stream reactor (ASSR) to decrease the generation of excess sludge. Water Res 46(13):4292–4300

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kittelmann S, Friedrich MW (2008) Identification of novel perchloroethene-respiring microorganisms in anoxic river sediment by RNA-based stable isotope probing. Environ Microbiol 10(1):31–46

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kwon S, Kim T-S, Yu GH, Jung J-H, Park H-D (2010) Bacterial community composition and diversity of a full-scale integrated fixed-film activated sludge system as investigated by pyrosequencing. J Microbiol Biotechn 20(12):1717–1723

    Google Scholar 

  • Lettinga G, Rebac S, Zeeman G (2001) Challenge of psychrophilic anaerobic wastewater treatment. Trends Biotechnol 19(9):363–370

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Liu J, Yu Y, Chang Y, Li B, Bian D, Yang W, Huo H, Huo M, Zhu S (2016) Enhancing quinoline and phenol removal by adding Comamonas testosteroni bdq06 in treatment of an accidental dye wastewater. Int Biodeterior Biodegrad 115:74–82

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ma C, Yu S, Shi W, Tian W, Heijman S, Rietveld L (2012) High concentration powdered activated carbon-membrane bioreactor (PAC-MBR) for slightly polluted surface water treatment at low temperature. Bioresour Technol 113:136–142

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Margesin R, Cimadom J, Schinner F (2006) Biological activity during composting of sewage sludge at low temperatures. Int Biodeterior Biodegrad 57(2):88–92

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Miura Y, Watanabe Y, Okabe S (2007) Significance of chloroflexi in performance of submerged membrane bioreactors (MBR) treating municipal wastewater. Environ Sci Technol 41(22):7787–7794

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Qiu Y, Shi H (2010) He M (2010) Nitrogen and phosphorous removal in municipal wastewater treatment plants in China: a review. Int J Chem Eng 2010(1687-806X):1–10

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ren Y, Li D, Li X, Yang L, Ding A, Zhang J (2014) High-rate nitrogen removal and microbial community of an up-flow anammox reactor with ceramics as biomass carrier. Chemosphere 113:125–131

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Riviere D, Desvignes V, Pelletier E, Chaussonnerie S, Guermazi S, Weissenbach J, Li T, Camacho P, Sghir A (2009) Towards the definition of a core of microorganisms involved in anaerobic digestion of sludge. ISME J 3(6):700–714

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Roohi MK, Ahmad I, Arif J (2011) Production of cold-active extracellular a-Amylase by newly isolated microbacterium foliorum GA2 from gangotri glacier, Western Himalaya, India. Asian J Biotechnol 3(5):449–459

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sibag M, Choi B, Suh C, Lee KH, Lee JW, Maeng SK, Cho J (2015) Inhibition of total oxygen uptake by silica nanoparticles in activated sludge. J Hazard Mater 283:841–846

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Silverstein J (1999) Oxygen inhibition of activated sludge denitrification. Water Res 33(8):1925–1937

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sun L, Wang L, Yuan X (2009) Low temperature influence on package membrane bioreactor (MBR) operation in remote mountain areas. In: IEEE international conference on bioinformatics and biomedical engineering

  • Sundaresan N, Philip L (2008) Performance evaluation of various aerobic biological systems for the treatment of domestic wastewater at low temperatures. Water Sci Technol 58(4):819–830

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tuo B, Yan J, Fan B, Yang Z, Liu J (2012) Biodegradation characteristics and bioaugmentation potential of a novel quinoline-degrading strain of Bacillus sp. isolated from petroleum-contaminated soil. Bioresour Technol 107:55–60

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Van der Bruggen B, Vandecasteele C, Van Gestel T, Doyen W, Leysen R (2003) A review of pressure-driven membrane processes in wastewater treatment and drinking water production. Environ Prog 22(1):46–56

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Lier JB, Rebac S, Lettinga G (1997) High-rate anaerobic wastewater treatment under psychrophilic and thermophilic conditions. Water Sci Technol 35(10):199–206

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vogelaar JCT, Klapwijk A, Lier JBV, Rulkens WH (2000) Temperature effects on the oxygen transfer rate between 20 and 55 & #xB0;C. Water Res 34(3):1037–1041

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wang S, Yang Q, Yang A, Guo J, Bo F (2007) Advanced nitrogen removal using pilot-scale SBR with intelligent control system built on three layer network. Front Environ Sci Eng 1(1):33–38

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang L, Zhang J, Feng L, Zhang L (2011) Effectiveness research of membrane bioreactor process treating low-temperature wastewater. Chin J Environ Eng 5(6):1263–1267

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Williams WA, May RJ (1997) Low-temperature microbial aerobic degradation of polychlorinated biphenyls in sediment. Environ Sci Technol 31(12):3491–3496

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Xin G, Gough HL (2007) Stensel HD (2007) Effect of anoxic selector configuration on SVI control and bacterial population fingerprinting. Proc Water Environ Fed 18:1385–1407

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yao S, Ni J, Chen Q, Borthwick AGL (2013) Enrichment and characterization of a bacteria consortium capable of heterotrophic nitrification and aerobic denitrification at low temperature. Bioresour Technol 127:151–157

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yergeau E, Newsham KK, Pearce DA, Kowalchuk GA (2007) Patterns of bacterial diversity across a range of Antarctic terrestrial habitats. Environ Microbiol 9(11):2670–2682

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yin Y, Gao C, Zhao Y, Wang A, Wang M, Yan K (2014) Electricity generation and dynamics characteristics of microbial community of microbial fuel cells started up with mixture of aerobic/anaerobic sludge. Acta Microbiol Sin 54(12):1471–1480

    CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the major science and technology program for water pollution control and treatment of China (Granted No. 2014ZX07201-011-004-2), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Granted No. 51578118, 51378098, 51508079, 51238001 and 51478096) and the Jilin Provincial Natural Science Foundation (Granted No. 20150101072JC, 20140520151JH) for their financial support.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jilin Engineering Research Centre for Municipal Wastewater Treatment and Water Quality Protection, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130117, China

    Qingkai Ren, Yang Yu, Suiyi Zhu, Dejun Bian, Mingxin Huo, Dandan Zhou & Hongliang Huo

  2. Changchun Institute of Technology, Changchun, 130117, China

    Qingkai Ren, Dejun Bian & Mingxin Huo

  3. Biorefining Research Institute, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, ON, P7B 5E1, Canada

    Yang Yu

Authors
  1. Qingkai Ren
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Yang Yu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Suiyi Zhu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Dejun Bian
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Mingxin Huo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Dandan Zhou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Hongliang Huo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Suiyi Zhu.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (DOCX 375 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Ren, Q., Yu, Y., Zhu, S. et al. Characterization of a novel micro-pressure swirl reactor for removal of chemical oxygen demand and total nitrogen from domestic wastewater at low temperature. Biodegradation 28, 145–157 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10532-017-9784-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10532-017-9784-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation