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DOI 10.1007/s11274-010-0382-y
ORIGINAL PAPER
Received: 4 January 2010 / Accepted: 2 March 2010 / Published online: 13 March 2010
Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010
Introduction
Nitrogen removal from wastewaters has attracted increasing attention due to strict environmental regulations on
nitrogen discharge. Biological treatment is one of the most
economical processes for nitrogen removal. While conventional biological nitrogen removal processes usually
employ at least two separate reactors for aerobic nitrification and anoxic denitrification, biofilm systems do reveal
some advantages on eliminating nitrogen in a single bioreactor (Helmer and Kunst 1998; Luostarinen et al. 2006).
Moving bed biofilm reactors (MBBRs) exposed to alternating anoxic and aerobic conditions have been proved to
be feasible for nitrogen removal (Rusten et al. 1994; Pastorelli et al. 1997; Luostarinen et al. 2006), whereas
nitrogen removal based on simultaneous nitrification and
denitrification (SND) in single aerobic MBBR with continuous operation has not been well studied.
A better understanding of microbial ecology in the biofilm
community is essential for improving reactor performance
and control. The available literature shows that changing the
C/N ratio of wastewater can affect nitrogen removal in the
bioreactors, such as bench-scale biological aerated filter
(BAF; Ohashi et al. 1995), fluidized-bed bioreactor (Xing
et al. 2000) and SND-based sequencing batch reactor (SBR;
Chiu et al. 2007). However, little investigation has been
carried out to characterize the microbial community in aerobic MBBR applied for SND. One of the difficulties in
exploring microbial ecology in complex biofilms is that pure
cultures of many important microorganisms cannot be
obtained by conventional microbiological techniques. Fortunately, the development of the molecular biological tools
has made it possible to characterize the microbial communities involved in the wastewater. In addition, denaturing
gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and fluorescent in situ
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s
X
pi loge pi
i1
1983
FISH analysis
Wet biofilm biomass were fixed in freshly prepared 4%
paraformaldehyde at 4C for 12 h immediately after sampling, washed twice in PBS, and subsequently stored in
PBS-ethanol (1:1) at -20C until further analysis. After the
fixation and washing steps, samples were spotted onto
gelatin-coated microscopic slides in duplicate, followed by
air-drying and dehydration in each 50, 80 and 96% of
ethanol solutions for 3 min, and finally dried in the air.
Details on the oligonucleotide probes are available at
probeBase (Loy et al. 2003) and are listed in Table 1. A
specific amount of formamide and NaCl concentration
depending on the probe is shown in Table 1 (Daims et al.
2001; Mobarry et al. 1996). The probes were labeled with
cyanine 3 (Cy3) or carboxyfluorescein (FAM) at the 50 end
(Genscript Co., Ltd, Nanjing, China).
A mixture of probe and hybridization buffer [0.9 M
NaCl, 20 mM TrisHCl, 0.01% SDS, and a specific
amount of formamide depending on the probe used in
Table 1 (pH 7.2)], was applied to each slide, and followed
by incubation for 1.52 h in a humid chamber at 46C. The
final probe concentration was approximately 2.5 ng ml-1.
The slides were washed in pre-warmed washing buffer
[20 mM TrisHCl (pH 7.2), 5 mM EDTA, 0.01% SDS,
and NaCl concentrations as shown in Table 1] for 20 min
at 48C, then rinsed with deionized water and air-dried.
An AXIO IMAGER A II fluorescent microscope
equipped with FITC/DAPI specific filters (Zeiss, Oberkochen, Germany) was used for microscopic observation. The
number of probe-hybridized cells was determined by direct
counting the minimum of ten randomly selected fields
covering 36,600 lm2 in sample covering area of 400 mm2
of slide and the counting was repeated three times. The
hybridization experiments were carried out in duplicate,
and the number was averaged.
The MBBRs showed high COD removal efficiencies irrespective of C/N ratios with stable operation throughout the
study period (Fig. 1). For the influent CODs of 500 mg/l (M1),
1,000 mg/l (M2) and 1,500 mg/l (M3), the effluent COD
concentrations ranged from 10.5 to 93.3 mg/l with the average
of 41.6 mg/l, from 23.3 to 123.0 mg/l with the average of
77.6 mg/l and from 53.3 to 75.0 mg/l with the average of
64.0 mg/l for M1, M2 and M3, respectively (Fig. 1). The
average COD removal efficiencies increased from 91.0, 92.8
to 95.7% as C/N ratios increased from 4.5, 8.9 to 13.4.
The effluent ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ammonia
removal, as well as SND efficiencies under the different C/
N ratios are illustrated in Fig. 2. The maximum average
ammonia removal efficiency (72.4%) was achieved at C/N
ratio of 13.4, and those decreased in the following order: C/
N ratios of 11.9 (60.3%), 8.9 (49.6%), 6.0 (43.3%) and 4.5
(41.1%) (Fig. 2). The ammonia removal efficiency
decreased with either increasing ammonium loading rates
at a constant COD loading or decreasing COD loading
rates at a constant ammonium loading.
The percentage of SND efficiency was calculated from
the sum of the nitrite and nitrate presented and the amount
of ammonium oxidized during the operation period (Third
et al. 2003). The MBBRs exhibited excellent capability of
denitrification as average SND efficiencies reached 97.6,
98.5 and 98.4% at C/N ratios of 4.5, 8.9 and 13.4,
respectively. Moreover, the moving bed biofilm with C/N
ratios of 11.9 and 6.0 also exhibited high SND efficiencies,
which averaged 99.2 and 92.0%, respectively (Fig. 2). The
nitrogen removal performance of the aerobic MBBR with
C/N ratios of 4.513.4 resulted in nearly complete denitrification yet relatively low nitrification (41.172.4%)
without nitrite accumulation.
The results showed an optimum C/N ratio of 13.4 for
maximum nitrogen and carbon removals in aerobic MBBR,
Specificity
EUB338
GCTGCCTCCCGTAGGAGT
Most Bacteria
20/225
ALF1b
CGTTCGYTCTGAGCCAG
Most Alphaproteobacteria
20/60
BET42a
GCCTTCCCACTTCGTTT
Most Betaproteobacteria
35/80
GAM42a
GCCTTCCCACATCGTTT
Most Gammaproteobacteria
35/60
Nso190
CGATCCCCTGCTTTTCTCC
Ammonia-oxidizing
55/20
Betaproteobacteria
Ntspa662
GGAATTCCGCGCTCCTCT
Genus Nitrospira
35/80
123
1984
Fig. 1 Profiles of COD concentrations in MBBRs at different C/N ratios filled sqaureinfluent open sqaureeffluent timesremoval
efficiency
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1986
(a)
2
8
9
10
1
5
6
7
3
4
(b)
M1-0
M1-1
M1-2
M2-0
M2-1
M2-2
M3-0
M3-1
Fig. 3 DGGE pattern (a) and cluster analysis in the form of UPGMA
dendrograms (b) of the bacterial communities from three MBBRs
with different C/N ratios. M1-0, M1-1, M1-2: samples collected from
M1 with C/N ratio of 20, 6.0, 4.5, respectively; M2-0, M2-1, M2-2:
increasing ammonium-loading rate to the SNDSBR system. Another investigation of SND-based suspended carrier biofilm reactor (SCBR) exhibited good capability of
both nitrogen and organic carbon removal at C/N ratio of
10:1 (Xia et al. 2008). Study of shrimp aquaculture
wastewater treatment by SBR by Fontenot et al. (2007) also
showed an optimum C:N ratio of 10:1 for the best removal
of both nitrogen and organic carbon. Therefore, the
established SND-based MBBR with optimal C/N ratio
can save operation space and time in comparison to the
traditional nitrogen removal process, and might be very
attractive for future practical applications.
with different C/N ratios. The results reveal that the bacterial
communities from more similar C/N ratios were more
associated to each other (Fig. 3b), indicating that similar C/N
ratios resulted in similar microbial population structures in
the biofilm. For example, the similarity coefficient of C/N of
4.5 with C/N of either 8.9 or 6.0 was approximately 0.50, and
that with C/N of 13.4 or 11.9 was 0.49 or 0.45, respectively.
However, compared with all the communities mentioned
above, the correlation coefficient of C/N ratio 4.5 with the
communities of C/N ratio 20.0 was the lowest at 0.330.38.
The ShannonWiener index H is used as a measurement
of the microbial diversity, which is influenced by both the
richness and abundance of species in the population.
DGGE-based H index increases with increasing number of
DGGE bands or the even distribution of individual band.
The diversity index for the bacterial communities varied in
the three reactors fed with different C/N ratios (Fig. 4). The
H value for the C/N ratio of 20.0 was 2.6332.861, which
increased to 2.926, 2.922, and 2.990 for C/N ratio of 13.4,
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Band no.
Identity (%)
Phylogenetic division
98
Betaproteobacteria
Acidovorax konjaci
96
Betaproteobacteria
100
Alphaproteobacteria
100
Alphaproteobacteria
93
Betaproteobacteria
98
Betaproteobacteria
92
Betaproteobacteria
96
Bacteroidetes
94
Bacteroidetes
10
100
Betaproteobacteria
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1988
Table 3 Bacterial community analysis of the biofilms in the three MBBRs with different C/N ratios as determined by FISH cell counts
C/N ratio
ALF1b (%)
BET42a (%)
GAM42a (%)
NSO190 (%)
Ntspa662 (%)
4.5
13.03 2.78
66.54 9.92
13.11 3.78
4.51 0.20
4.35 0.45
6.0
20.04 1.64
55.43 0.57
10.21 2.78
4.32 0.87
4.33 0.57
8.9
11.51 4.77
66.60 7.78
11.38 7.78
3.78 1.57
2.64 0.22
11.9
16.73 1.45
56.04 7.14
15.17 1.48
4.06 1.25
2.77 0.84
13.4
16.74 3.50
60.42 1.64
12.25 6.80
3.29 1.55
2.48 0.25
The values obtained with the probes ALF1b, BET42a, GAM42a, NSO190 and Ntspa662 were expressed as percentages of the number of cells
detected with the probe EUB338
123
Nitrobacter thrives in higher nitrite concentrations (Bartosch et al. 2002). Consequently, Betaproteobacteria AOB
and Nitrospira-like NOB were selected to quantify the
nitrifiers in the biofilm by FISH with oligonucleotide
probes Nso190 and Ntspa662.
FISH cell counts of specific groups are given in Table 3
as percentages of the number of cells detected with the
probe EUB338. FISH analysis reveals that the moving bed
biofilm was dominated by a large number of Proteobacteria consisting of alpha, beta and gamma subclasses. The
bacteria affiliated with beta-subclass Proteobacteria were
the most numerically important populations (55.466.6%),
which are in accordance with the identification of DGGE
band sequences (Table 2).
The relative abundances of Betaproteobacteria AOB
were 3.29, 4.06, 3.78, 4.32 and 4.51% for C/N ratio of 13.4,
11.9, 8.9, 6.0 and 4.5, respectively, and those of Nitrospiralike NOB were 2.48, 2.77, 2.64, 4.33 and 4.35% (Table 3),
which indicates the increasing proportion of Betaproteobacteria AOB and Nitrospira-like NOB with decreasing C/
N ratios. The increases in nitrifier population due to C/N
ratio are consistent with the results obtained by Ohashi
et al. (1995) and Xia et al. (2008).
Decreases in COD loading rates at a constant ammonium loading cause less supply of carbon sources, and
consequently the heterotrophic bacterial population
decreased, while nitrifying bacteria become a more
important component in the biofilm. The relationship
between C/N ratio and nitrifier population suggests larger
relative abundance of nitrifiers in biofilm reactors at low C/
N ratio. However, the competition for DO between heterotrophic bacteria and nitrifiers in biofilm systems is well
known, and it results in a stratified biofilm structure, the
fast growing heterotrophic bacteria being placed in the
outer layers, while the slow growing nitrifiers locate deeper
inside the biofilm. Thus oxygen limitation resulting from
consumption and resistance to mass transfer within the
heterotrophic layer affects the nitrifying bacteria negatively
in the presence of organic substrates when the bulk liquid
oxygen concentration is low (Ohashi et al. 1995; Satoh
et al. 2000). Meanwhile, the activity of both AOB and
Conclusions
In continuous-flow MBBRs under constantly aerobic conditions, appropriate control of microbial community
structure resulting from optimal C/N ratio is beneficial to
improve SND, thus maximizing nitrogen removal. The
results show that the aerobic MBBRs were efficient for
SND and COD removal with respective efficiencies of
92.098.5% and over 90.0%. The nitrogen removal performance of the aerobic MBBRs at C/N ratios of 4.513.4
resulted in nearly complete denitrification, yet relatively
low nitrification (41.172.4%) without nitrite accumulation. DGGE results indicate that the microbial community
structures based on more similar C/N ratios were more
similar in terms of highest species richness and diversity at
C/N ratios of 8.913.4. FISH analysis has confirmed that
the dominance of both Betaproteobacteria AOB and
Nitrospira-like NOB negatively correlated with C/N ratios.
Acknowledgments This research is supported by Natural Science
Foundation of Jiangsu Province of China (No. BK2009252) and the
Key Project of Chinese Ministry of Education (No. 108150).
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