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Monitoring the abundance and the activity of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria in a full-scale nitrifying activated sludge reactor

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Abstract

Cell-specific ammonia oxidation rate (AOR) has been suggested to be an indicator of the performance of nitrification reactors and to be used as an operational parameter previously. However, published AOR values change by orders of magnitude and studies investigating full-scale nitrification reactors are limited. Therefore, this study aimed at quantifying ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and estimating their in situ cell-specific AOR in a full-scale activated sludge reactor treating combined domestic and industrial wastewaters. Results showed that cell-specific AOR changed between 5.30 and 9.89 fmol cell−1 h−1, although no significant variation in AOB cell numbers were obtained (1.54E + 08 ± 0.22 cell/ml). However, ammonia-removal efficiency varied largely (52–79 %) and was proportional to the cell-specific AOR in the reactor. This suggested that the cell-specific AOR might be the factor affecting the biological ammonia-removal efficiency of nitrification reactors independent of the AOB number. Further investigation is needed to establish an empirical relationship to use cell-specific AOR as a parameter to operate full-scale nitrification systems more effectively.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Istanbul Technical University, Dr. Orhan Ocalgiray Molecular Biology-Biotechnology and Genetics Research Center (MOBGAM) for CSLM facility and the treatment plant personnel of Industrial Region, Istanbul for providing the chemical analysis data and help with collecting the samples. The authors also thank two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK, CV4 7AL

    Ö. Eyice

  2. Environmental Engineering Department, Istanbul Technical University, 34469, Istanbul, Turkey

    O. Ince

  3. Institute of Environmental Sciences, Bogazici University, 34342, Istanbul, Turkey

    B. K. Ince

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  1. Ö. Eyice
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  2. O. Ince
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  3. B. K. Ince
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Correspondence to Ö. Eyice.

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Responsible editor: Gerald Thouand

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Supplementary Table 1

Conventional characterization of the biological treatment influent (Cokgor et al. 2008). (PDF 2462 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 1

Representative FISH images of Eubacteria in red and AOB in magenta (overlay of red and blue) in activated sludge samples obtained by confocal laser scanning microscope. (PDF 30 kb)

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Eyice, Ö., Ince, O. & Ince, B.K. Monitoring the abundance and the activity of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria in a full-scale nitrifying activated sludge reactor. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 2328–2334 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-3519-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-3519-y

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