The characteristics of nitrifying bacteria in the modified MLE process which was put in the media were investigated to evaluate the relationship between nitrification performance and microbial community at the different HRTs. Fluorescence in situ hybr...
The characteristics of nitrifying bacteria in the modified MLE process which was put in the media were investigated to evaluate the relationship between nitrification performance and microbial community at the different HRTs. Fluorescence in situ hybridization(FISH) and the ion-selective microelectrode (ISME) system have been adopted to analyze microbial communities and ion concentration profiles according to the acrobic biofilm depth.
Fiber media packed MLE like reactor composed of anoxic, aerobic 1 and 2 was operated with synthetic wastewater having COD 200 mg/L and NH₄^(+)-N 40mg/L at HRT 6h, 4h and 2h.
SCOD_(Cr) removal efficiency was about 90% at all condition. And NH₄^(+)-N removal efficiencies were 61%, 89%, and 35% at HRT 6h, 4h and 2h, respectively. At HRT 6h condition, NH₄^(+)-N showed low efficiency. This was because the loading has to increase for restraining the Nias genuses organism attached media. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the recycle rate to escape the break-through event.
Total biofilm thickness of aerobic 1 and 2 reactor had been thickened as HRT was decreased(aerobic 1 : 6h 380 ㎛, 4h 830 ㎛, 2h 1170 ㎛ ; aerobic 2 : 6h 400 ㎛, 4h 1035 ㎛, 2h 1550 ㎛). HRT 6h condition showed that as deepen the biofilm thickness, NH₄^(+)-N concentration was reduced and removed NH₄^(+)-N was completely oxidized to NO3-N. Though NH₄^(+)-N contration was almost linearly decreased through the biofilm, significant nitrification was not observed at HRT 4h and 2h due to the insufficient HRT.
FISH analysis using EUB338 and Nso190 probe showed that the AOB ratio increased and Nitrospira genus and Nitobacter spp. decreased as the HRT was decreased from 6h and 4h. Under deepen biofilm, the distribution rate of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria(AOB) gradually decreased. From the results of ISME and FISH analysis, it is estimated that most of NH₄^(+)-N decrease at HRT 4h and 2h was occurred by cell synthesis.
It is considered that FISH and ISME can be and appropriate method to investigate the change of the microbial community.