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Acceleration of the particulate organic matter hydrolysis by start-up stage recovery and its original microbial mechanism

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Abstract

To address the availability of carbon sources for denitrification, the accelerated hydrolysis of the most abundant but low-availability fraction of particulate organic matter (POM) was investigated. Mesh sieves with different pore sizes were used as primary pretreatment at the start-up-stage of the biological process to separate some POM from the liquid system. The changes in soluble carbohydrates and proteins were monitored to investigate the hydrolysis performance of the sieved POM, with waste activated sludge (WAS) as the control test. The results showed that an average of 35% POM could be entrapped before filtrate mat development. In addition, benefiting from the high polysaccharides concentration, as well as the high availability due to the relatively loose physical structure, a 23% hydrolysis efficiency of POM was obtained, in contrast to that of WAS (3.4%), with a hydrolysis constant of 0.39 h−1. The prominent performance was also attributed to the unique microbial communities having been domesticated at a lower temperature, especially the cellulose-degrading bacteria Paraclostridium and psychrophile Psychrobacter, making up 6.94% and 2.56%, respectively. Furthermore, the potential benefits and application of improved POM hydrolysis by start-up stage recovery via mesh sieves combined with anaerobic fermentation were evaluated, including selective POM entrapment, alleviation of blockage and wear, and a reduction in aeration energy. By the proposed strategy, carbon availability for biological nutrient removal (BNR) processes is anticipated to be improved more economically than that can be achieved by primary clarifier elimination.

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Abbreviations

POM:

Particulate organic matter

BNR:

Biological nutrient removal

WWTPs:

Wastewater treatment plants

WAS:

Waste activated sludge

ECS:

External carbon sources

ISS:

Inorganic suspended solids

VSS:

Volatile suspended solids

TSS:

Total suspended solids

VFAs:

Volatile fatty acids

COD:

Chemical oxygen demand

TCOD:

Total COD mg COD/L

PCOD:

Particulate COD mg COD/L

Ss:

Soluble readily biodegradable COD mg COD/L

SA:

VFAs components in Ss mg COD/L

SF:

Non-VFAs components in Ss mg COD/L

Si:

Soluble inert COD mg COD/L

Xs:

Particulate slowly biodegradable COD mg COD/L

Xss:

Settable slowly biodegradable COD mg COD/L

Xi:

Particulate inert COD mg COD/L

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Major Science and Technology Program of the Ministry of Environment protection of China (Nos. 2019YFC0408601 and 2019YFC0408602), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51708386, 21501129 and 21707099), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2016M-591416), the State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse Foundation (No. PCRRF17021), the Scientific and Technological Project of Shanxi Province (No. 201701D221230), the Key Research and Development (R&D) Project of Shanxi Province (Nos. 201903D321057 and 201903D321055), the Youth Science and Technology Foundation of Gansu Province (Nos. 1506RJYA154 and 18JR3RA023), and the Provincial Science and Technology Plan Projects of Gansu Province (No. 2015017).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, 030024, China

    Yanqing Duan, Aijuan Zhou, Xiuping Yue, Zhichun Zhang, Yanjuan Gao, Yanhong Luo & Xiao Zhang

  2. Shanxi Engineer Research Institute of Sludge Disposition and Resources, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, 030024, China

    Aijuan Zhou & Xiuping Yue

  3. School of Environment and Safety Engineering, North University of China, Taiyuan, 030051, China

    Yanhong Luo

Authors
  1. Yanqing Duan
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  2. Aijuan Zhou
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  3. Xiuping Yue
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  4. Zhichun Zhang
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  5. Yanjuan Gao
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  6. Yanhong Luo
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  7. Xiao Zhang
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Aijuan Zhou or Xiuping Yue.

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Highlights

• Carbon availability was partially solved by POM recovery and fermentation.

• 12% carbon sources were regenerated by fermentation of the entrapped 35% TCOD.

• The unique microbial communities facilitated the efficient hydrolysis of the POM.

• Considerable economic benefits in aeration power and ECS dosage were anticipated.

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Duan, Y., Zhou, A., Yue, X. et al. Acceleration of the particulate organic matter hydrolysis by start-up stage recovery and its original microbial mechanism. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng. 15, 12 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-020-1304-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-020-1304-3

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