Exploratory study on the metabolic similarity of denitrifying carbon sources.

Mixed carbon sources have been developed for denitrification to eliminate the "carbon dependency" problem of single carbon. The metabolic correlation between different carbon sources is significant as guidance for the development of novel mixed carbon sources. In this study, to explore the metabolic similarity of denitrifying carbon sources, we selected alcohols (methanol, ethanol, and glycerol) and saccharide carbon sources (glucose, sucrose, and starch). Batch denitrification experiments revealed that methanol-acclimated sludge improved the denitrification rate of both methanol (14.42 mg-N/gMLVSS*h) and ethanol (9.65 mg-N/gMLVSS*h), whereas ethanol-acclimated sludge improved the denitrification rate of both methanol (7.80 mg-N/gMLVSS*h) and ethanol (22.23 mg-N/gMLVSS*h). In addition, the glucose-acclimated sludge and sucrose-acclimated sludge possibly improved the denitrification rate of glucose and sucrose, and the glycerol-acclimated sludge improved the denitrification rate of volatile fatty acids (VFAs), alcohols, and saccharide carbon sources. Functional gene analysis revealed that methanol, ethanol, and glycerol exhibited active alcohol oxidation and glyoxylate metabolism, and glycerol, glucose, and sucrose exhibited active glycolysis metabolism. This indicated that the similarity in the denitrification metabolism of these carbon sources was based on functional gene similarity, and glycerol-acclimated sludge exhibited the most diverse metabolism, which ensured its good denitrification effect with other carbon sources.