Structure and composition of biofilm communities in a moving bed biofilm reactor for nitritation–anammox at low temperatures

• Published in: Bioresource technology Vol. 154; pp. 267 - 273
• Main Authors: Persson, Frank, Sultana, Razia, Suarez, Carolina, Hermansson, Malte, Plaza, Elzbieta, Wilén, Britt-Marie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01-02-2014; Elsevier
• Subjects: Ammonia - metabolism; Ammonium Compounds - metabolism; Anaerobiosis; Annan naturresursteknik; Bacteria; Bacteria - metabolism; Biofilms; Biological and medical sciences; Bioreactors; Bioreactors - microbiology; Biotechnology; Cold Temperature; Communities; FISH-CLSM; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence; Low temperature; MBBR; Methods. Procedures. Technologies; Microbial community analysis; Microbial Consortia; Microbiology; Mikrobiologi; Molecular Sequence Data; Nitrification; Nitritation-anammox; Nitrobacter; Nitrogen - metabolism; Nitrogen removal; Nitrosomonas; Nitrospira; Other Environmental Engineering; Oxidation; Oxidation-Reduction; Phylogeny; Reactors; Reproduction; Various methods and equipments; Vattenteknik; Waste water; Water Engineering; Microbial community analysis; Nitritation–anammox; MBBR; FISH–CLSM; Low temperature; Ammonium; Moving bed; FISH―CLSM; Nitrosation; Bioreactor; Anaerobe; Nitritation―anammox; Biofilm; Bacteria; Oxidation; Microbial community
• ISSN: 0960-8524; 1873-2976; 1873-2976
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2013.12.062

•We studied a nitritation–anammox moving bed biofilm reactor at low temperatures.•Shifts from 19 to 13°C reduced nitrogen removal, at 10°C removal was unstable.•Anammox bacteria (at least two taxa of Brocadia sp.) dominated the biofilm biomass.•Aerobic ammonia oxidizing bacteria were fewer, located at the biofilm-water interface.•Nitrite oxidizing bacteria were low in abundance, but had some activity.
It is a challenge to apply anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) for nitrogen removal from wastewater at low temperatures. Maintenance of anammox- and aerobic ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and suppression of nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB) are key issues. In this work, a nitritation–anammox moving bed biofilm pilot reactor was operated at 19–10°C for 300d. Nitrogen removal was decreasing, but stable, at 19–13°C. At 10°C removal became unstable. Quantitative PCR, fluorescence in situ hybridization and gene sequencing showed that no major microbial community changes were observed with decreased temperature. Anammox bacteria dominated the biofilm (0.9–1.2×1014 16S rRNA copies m−2). Most anammox bacteria were similar to Brocadia sp. 40, but another smaller Brocadia population was present near the biofilm-water interface, where also the AOB community (Nitrosomonas) was concentrated in thin layers (1.8–5.3×1012 amoA copies m−2). NOB (Nitrobacter, Nitrospira) were always present at low concentrations (<1.3×1011 16S rRNA copies m−2).