Nitrogen removal by granular nitritation-anammox in an upflow membrane-aerated biofilm reactor.

The nitritation-anammox process has been a promising nitrogen removal technology towards sustainable wastewater treatment, but its application in treating domestic wastewater with relatively low ammonium concentrations (mainstream) remains a great challenge. In this study, an innovative lab-scale upflow membrane-aerated biofilm reactor (UMABR) was employed to treat a synthetic wastewater containing 70 mg N L(-1) ammonium. With a DO level at 0.6 ± 0.1 mg O2 L(-1) and HRT of 32 h, the effluent ammonium concentration was 4.8 ± 2.0 mg N L(-1). Increasing the nitrogen loading rate from 52.4 to 104.8 g N m(-3) d(-1) with stepwise decreasing HRT from 32 to 16 h resulted in an average TN removal efficiency of 81% without nitrite accumulation. The average observed NO3(-)-N (residue)/NH4(+)-N (consumed) ratio of 8% was below the "theoretical ratio" of 13% and further reduction of nitrate residue needs to be addressed. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and high-throughput sequencing analyses showed the coexistence of anammox bacteria and ammonium-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) in both biofilm and granular samples. Anammox bacteria accounted for up to 63.3% of the microbial community of the granules, with Candidatus Jettenia being the distinctly dominant anammox genus. In contrast, the biofilm contained abundant Nitrosomonadaceae (AOB, 33.1%). In addition, the brown-yellow granules exhibited a more balanced community structure with anammox bacteria and AOB accounting for 33.7% and 18.2%, respectively, which may contribute to the long-term operation of single-stage nitritation-anammox process. These results demonstrate that the nitritation-anammox UMABR could potentially be used for nitrogen removal from mainstream in some specific regions with relatively warm temperature.