Performance evaluation of the effect of humic acid on Anammox granular sludge:Apparent morphology,nitrogen removal and microbial community

Humic acid(HA)is a typical refractory organicmatter,so it is of great significance to investigate its effect on the performance of Anammox granular sludge.When the dosage ofHA≤50 mg/L,HA promotes the total nitrogen removal rate(NRR)to 1.45 kg/(m^(3)·day).When HA was between 50 and 100 mg/L,the NRR of Anammox was stable.At this time,the adsorption of HA causes the sludge to gradually turn fromred to brown,but the activities of heme and enzymes showed that its capacitywas not affected.When HA levels reached 250 mg/L,the NRR dropped to 0.11 kg/(m3·day).Moderate HA levels promoted the release of extracellular polymeric substance(EPS),but excessive HA levels lead to a decrease in EPS concentrations.HA inhibited Anammox activity,which indirectly hindered the transmission of substrate and accumulated substrate toxicity.Although HA promoted the increase of heterotrophicmicrobial abundance in Anammox system,the microbial diversity decreased gradually.With the increase of HA concentration,the abundance of Candidatus_Brocadia,the main functional microorganism of Anammox system,decreased gradually,while the abundance of Candidatus_Kuenenia increased gradually.