Simultaneous anaerobic-aerobic biodegradation of halogenated phenolic compound under oxygen-limited conditions

The successful application of co-immobilized aerobic-anaerobic biomass under limited aeration in wastewater treatment systems would eliminate the problems associated with the intermediates mono-chlorophenol（MCP） and di-chlorophenol（DCP） accumulations. With low initial pentachlorophenol（PCP） concentration, all PCP could be completely removed under oxygen-limited strict anaerobic conditions, and the removal efficiencies with different initial headspace oxygen percentage（IHOP） were not obviously different from each other. While at high initial PCP concentration, under strictly anaerobic conditions PCP and their intermediates were clearly higher than that under other conditions, and produced obvious accumulation, the highest PCP reduction was achieved by the system receiving 30 IHOP, oxygen-limited system also exhibited lower residual TOC concentration and lower concentration of metabolic intermediates MCP and DCP. These results suggested that under strictly anaerobic condition the reductive dechlorination of low chlorinated compounds became rate limiting in the reductive dechlorination pathway, less chlorinated compounds be more amenable to aerobic degradation, and the aerobes of outer layers could function under limited oxygen. The co-immobilized aerobic-anaerobic biomass for methanogenesis under limited-aeration for chlorophenol degradation might be an attractive and efficient alternative for the sequential anaerobic/aerobic system to achieve mineralization of a broad range of recalcitrance highly chlorinated organics and low final TOC concentrations.

Partial Nitrification from Domestic Wastewater by Aeration Control at Ambient Temperature

The objective of this paper was to examine the feasibility of partial nitrification from raw domestic wastewater at ambient temperature by aeration control only. Airflow rate was selected as the sole operational parameter. A 14L sequencing batch reactor was operated at 23℃ for 8 months, with an input of domestic wastewater. There was a prolgrammed decrease of the airflow rate to 28L·h^-1, the corresponding average dissolved oxygen （DO） was 0.32mg·h^-1, and the average nitrite accumulation rate increased to 92.4% in 3 weeks. Subsequently, further increase in the airflow rate to 48L·h^-1 did not destroy the partial nitrification to nitrite, with average DO of 0.60mg·h^-1 and nitrite accumulating rate of 95.6%. The results showed that limited airflow rate to cause oxygen deficiency in the reactor would eventually induce only nitrification to nitrite and not further to nitrate and that this system showed relatively stability at higher airflow rate independent of pH and temperature. About 50% of influent total nitrogen was eliminated coupling with partial nitrification, taking the advantage of low DO during the reaction.

Comparing the temperature sensitivity of organic matter decomposition in oxic and oxygen-deprived soils

No consistent variation was found in soil respiration Q10 under various O2 conditions.Substrate C quality had a strong effect on Q10 in oxic soils.N limitation had a large impact on Q10 in soils under O2 limitation.Current studies on the temperature sensitivity(Q10)of soil organic matter(SOM)decomposition mainly focus on aerobic conditions.However,varia-tions and determinants of Q10 in oxygen(O2)-deprived soils remain unclear.Here we incubated three grassland soils under oxic,suboxic,and anoxic conditions subjected to varying temperatures to compare variations in Q10 in relation to changing substrates.No consistent variation was found in Q10 under various O2 conditions.Further analysis of edaphic properties demon-strated that substrate carbon quality showed a strong influence on Q10 in oxic soils,whereas nitrogen limitation played a more important role in suboxic and anoxic soils.These results suggest that substrate carbon quality and nitrogen limitation may play roles of varying importance in determining the temperature sensitivity of SOM decomposition under various O2 conditions.