Bulking sludge for PHA production:Energy saving and comparative storage capacity with well-settled sludge

Two acetate-fed sequencing batch reactors （SBR） were operated under an aerobic dynamic feeding （ADF） model （SBR#2） and with anaerobic phase before aerobic phase （SBR#1） to select mixed cultures with a high polyhydroxyalkanoates （PHA） storage response. Although kinetic selection based on storage response should bring about a predominance of floc-formers, a bulking sludge with storage response comparable to well-settled sludge was steadily established. An anaerobic phase was introduced before the aerobic phase in the ADF model to improve the sludge settleability （SBR #1）, however, due to the consequent increased feast/famine ratio, the performance of SBR #1, in terms of both the maximum PHB （polyhydroxybutyrate） cell content and APHB, was lower than that of SBR #2. SBR #2 gradually reached a steady state while SBR #1 failed suddenly after 50 days of operation. The maximum specific substrate uptake rate and storage rate for the selected bulking sludge were 0.4 Cmol Ae/（Cmol X.hr） and 0.18 Cmol Ac/（Cmol PHB.hr）, respectively, resulting a yield of 0.45 Cmol PHB/（Cmol Ae） in SBR #2 in the culture enrichment phase. A maximum PHB content of 53% of total suspended solids and PHB storage rate of 1.36 Cmol Ac/（Cmol PHB.hr） was achieved at 10.2 hr in batch accumulation tests under nitrogen starvation. The results indicated that it was feasible to utilize filamentous bacteria to accumulate PHA with a rate comparable to well-settled sludge, Furthermore, the lower dissolved oxygen demand of filamentous bacteria would save energy required for aeration in the culture enrichment stage.

Analysis of bacterial community in bulking sludge using culture-dependent and -independent approaches

The bacterial community of a bulking sludge from a municipal wastewater treatment plant with anoxic-anaerobic-oxic process was investigated by combination of cultivation and 16S rRNA gene clone library analysis for understanding the causes of bulking.A total of 28 species were obtained from 63 isolates collected from six culture media.The most cultivable species belonged to γ-Proteobacteria including Klebsiella sp.,Pseudomonas sp.,Aeromonas sp.and Acinetobacter sp.Further analysis of these strains by repetitive sequence based on polymerase chain reaction （rep-PCR） technology showed that rep-PCR yielded discriminatory banding patterns within the same genus using REP and BOX primer sets.While the culture-independent assessment revealed that β-Proteobacteria was the dominant group in the bulking sample.Sequence analysis revealed that the highest proportion （14.7%） of operational taxonomic units was 98% similar to Candidatus Accumulibacter phosphatis,which is used to remove phosphorous from wastewater.Our results indicated that combining different approaches can produce complementary information,thus generate a more accurate view of microbial community in bulking sludge.

Characteristics of Nutrients Removal under Viscous Sludge Bulking Treating Synthetic Wastewater

Viscous sludge bulking is a rare phenomenon in activated sludge process.The performances of nutrients removal were investigated with normal sludge and viscous bulking sludge.The results showed that when COD loading and C/N ratio were around 0.13 mg COD/(mg MLSS·d)and 7.67,the effect of viscous sludge bulking on the maximum specific oxidation rates of NH_(4)^(+)⁃N was very little,while the maximum specific oxidation rates of NO_(2)^(-)⁃N decreased from 24.69 mg/(g·h)to 1.20 mg/(g·h).Compared with normal sludge,viscous bulking sludge had bigger particle size and more extracellular polymeric substances(EPS).The mass transfer resistance in sludge flocs might be the main cause of the difference in NO-2⁃N oxidation rates.Therefore,this study demonstrates that viscous sludge bulking is beneficial to enhance simultaneous nitrification and denitrification(SND),and excessive EPS will exhibit storage function during phosphorus removal process.

Negative Effects of Sludge Bulking in Membrane Bio-Reactor

Sludge bulking property of membrane bio-reactor was investigated in this study through contrast research. When the sludge bulking appeared, the removal efficiency of COD in membrane bio-reactor increased slightly through the function of filamentous bacteria. However, the negative effects of the higher net water-head differential pressures, the high block rate of membrane pore and the great quantity of filamentous bacteria at the external surface presented at the same time. Thus, plenty of methods should be performed to control sludge bulking once it happened in membrane bio-reactor.

Sludge Bulking Property of Membrane Bio-reactor in Albumen Wqastewater Treatment

Albumen wastewater was treated by Membrane Bio-reactor. Sludge bulking property of Membrane Bio-Reactor was investigated in this study through contrast research. When the sludge bulking appeared, the removal efficiency of COD in Membrane Bio-reactor increased slightly under the function of filamentous bacteria. However, the negative effects of the higher net water-head differential pressures,the higher block rate of membrane pore and the great quantity of filamentous bacteria at the externalsurface pres...

Granulation of filamentous microorganisms in a sequencing batch reactor with saline wastewater

Proliferation of filamentous microorganisms frequently leads to operational failure for activate sludge systems. In this study, it was found that filamentous microorganisms could grow in compact granular structure with 5% sodium chloride in the substrate. In the early period of experiment, coccoid and rode-like bacteria predominated in the yellowish-brown granules, and later the white and the black granules were developed by filamentous microorganisms. The filamentous granules exhibited low porosity and fast settling velocity, and were more compact even than bacteria granules. It was hypothesized that the elevated pH in the later period might be a possible reason for the compact growth of filamentous granules. However, the bacteria granules showed the high bioactivity in terms of specific oxygen utilizing rate, and comprised of a wider diversity of compounds based on the thermogravimetric evaluation. The findings in this study demonstrated that filamentous microbes could form compact granular structure, which may encourage the utilization of filamentous microorganisms rather than the inhibition of their growth, as the latter is frequently used for sludge bulking control.

Effects of phosphorus and nitrogen limitation on PHA production in activated sludge

The effects of phosphorus and nitrogen limitation on polyhydroxyalkanoate （PHA） production and accumulation by activated sludge biomass with acetate as a carbon source were investigated. Pre-selected influent carbon-phosphorus （C：P, W/W） of 100, 160, 250, 500 and 750, and carbon-nitrogen （C：N, W/W） of 20, 60, 100, 125 and 180 were applied in the phosphorus limitation experiments and the nitrogen limitation experiments, respectively. The maximum PHA accumulation up to 59% of the cell dry weight with a PHA productivity of 1.61 mg PHA/mg COD consumed was observed at the C：N 125 in the nitrogen limitation experiment. This value was much higher than that obtained in previous studies with a normal substrate feeding. The study showed that activated sludge biomass would produce more polyhydroxybutyrate than polyhydroxyvalerate under the stress of nutrient limitation, especially under phosphorus limitation conditions. The experimental result also indicated that both phosphorus and nitrogen limitation may cause sludge bulking.

Responses of protists with different feeding habits to the changes of activated sludge conditions:A study based on biomass data

Changes of protists, which were categorized into different functional groups primarily according to their feeding habits, in two full-scale municipal wastewater treatment systems experiencing sludge bulking were investigated over a period of 14 months. Protist biomass represented 3.7% to 5.2% of total biomass on average under normal sludge conditions, and the percentage increased significantly （p 〈 0.05） under sludge bulking conditions. The biomass of Chilodonella spp., capable of eating filamentous bacteria, tended to decrease in both systems when sludge bulking occurred, showing that the abnormal growth of filamentous bacteria did not lead to a biomass bloom of this group of protists. On the other hand, the bactivorous protists represented more than 96% of total protist biomass, and the biomass of this group, particularly the attached ciliates, increased significantly （p 〈 0.05） when sludge bulking occurred. The significant increase of the attached ciliates may have possibly facilitated the growth of filamentous bacteria through selectively preying on non-filamentous bacteria and further exacerbated sludge bulking. The redundancy analysis and correlation analysis results showed that the biomass changes of the attached ciliates were primarily related to the sludge volume index and to some extent related to five-day biochemical oxygen demand loading and hydraulic retention time.

Comparison of bacterial community structures in two systems of a sewage treatment plant using PCR-DGGE analysis

The combination of PCR amplification of 16S rRNA genes with denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis （DGGE） analysis was used to reveal the compositions and dynamics of bacterial communities in a sewage treatment plant with two systems, i.e., an anoxic- anaerobic-aerobic system （inverted A2O） and an anaerobic-anoxic-aerobic one （conventional A2O） over a period from February to July 2009, during which both systems experienced serious sludge bulking problems. The DGGE patterns showed that there were many common bands in both systems, suggesting the high similarity of bacterial communities of the two systems. Meanwhile, the moving window correlation analysis showed that the two systems experienced different microbial community structure changes during the period, which might be related with the different situations of the occurrence and disappearance of sludge bulking, as being reflected by sludge volume index （SVI） values. Major bands of DGGE patterns of sludge samples were further sequenced. Phylogenetic affiliation indicated that the majority of the sequences obtained were affiliated with Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes/Chlorobi group and α- and β-Proteobacteria. Two sequences showed high similarities to typical filamentous bacteria Microthrix parvicella and Nostocoida limicola I, indicating that these bacterial species have been involved in the sludge bulking problems.