Denitrification using PBS as carbon source and biofilm support in a packed-bed bioreactor

Abstract

Biodegradable polymer was used as carbon source and biofilm support for nitrate removal from aqueous solution as an attractive alternative for biological denitrification. The objective of this paper was to investigate the denitrification performance and microbial community of a packed-bed bioreactor using poly (butanediol succinate) (PBS), a biodegradable polymer, as carbon source and biofilm support. NO(3)-N concentration was determined by UV spectrophotometer. NO(2)-N concentration was assayed by hydrochloric acid naphthyl ethylenediamine spectrophotometry method. Total organic carbon (TOC) was measured using a TOC analyzer. The morphology of the samples was observed using an environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM). The microbial community was analyzed by pyrosequencing method. The experimental results showed that an average removal efficiency of nitrate was 95 %. ESEM observation and FTIR analysis indicated the changes of PBS granules before and after microbial utilization. Pyrosequencing results showed that Betaproteobacteria predominated, and most of PBS-degrading denitrifying bacteria were assigned to the family Comamonadaceae. Denitrifying bacteria accounted for 13.02 % in total population. The PBS granules were suitable support and carbon source for denitrifying bacteria.

Biological denitrification using poly(butylene succinate) as carbon source and biofilm carrier for recirculating aquaculture system effluent treatment

“…2C and D). This result was relative lower when compared with other report that achieved approximate 0.3 kg NO 3 À -N m À3 d À1 denitrification rate after 70 days experiment at 25°C (Wu et al, 2013). In this study, low temperature (19 ± 1°C) during the start-up period might be the main reason, since it strongly affected the hydrolysis efficiency of carbon source and the activity of the denitrifying bacteria (Chu and Wang, 2013).…”

“…It can release organic carbon slowly and automatically, which means it can be used directly in the system, and provides an alternative to sustainable RAS. For instance, polycaprolactone (PCL) (Chu and Wang, 2013) or starch/polycaprolactone (SPCL) (Shen et al, 2015), polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) (Gutierrez-Wing et al, 2012) and poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) (Luo et al, 2014;Wu et al, 2013) were all proved to have high nitrate removal efficiency. Because of the specific material component and reaction product, denitrification based on biodegradable polymers seemed to be more convenient and competitive when the treatment objects have high water quality requirement (e.g., drinking water, groundwater, and RAS water) (Lucas et al, 2008).…”

“…Because of the specific material component and reaction product, denitrification based on biodegradable polymers seemed to be more convenient and competitive when the treatment objects have high water quality requirement (e.g., drinking water, groundwater, and RAS water) (Lucas et al, 2008). However, previous researches of solid-phase denitrification mostly focused on synthetic wastewater (Luo et al, 2014;Shen and Wang, 2011;Shen et al, 2013Shen et al, , 2015Wu et al, 2013), whose composition is relatively unitary, while real RAS wastewater were seldom studied. Though these target wastewaters share the common water quality characteristic of low C/N ratio, RAS effluent contained more complex substrate component due to the interaction of cultured animals and feeding (van Rijn, 2013).…”

Nitrate removal performance of Diaphorobacter nitroreducens using biodegradable plastics as the source of reducing power

“…External solid substrates widely used for the SPD process are biodegradable polyesers applied as biodegradable plastics, such as poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) [3] and its copolymer with 3-hydroxyvalerate (PHBV) [4][5][6]. Other biodegradable plastics used for denitrification are poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) [7][8][9][10][11], poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) [12], and poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) [13][14][15][16]. Nevertheless, the SPD process is yet to be applied for practical use as a plant-scale system.…”

Comparison of polycaprolactone and starch/polycaprolactone blends as carbon source for biological denitrification

“…To avoid these problems, a new type of denitrification method has been designed in recent years, using insoluble biodegradable polymers as carbon source and biofilm carrier simultaneously, which is accessible only by enzymatic attack (Boley et al 2000). There are two kinds of solid carbon sources, namely natural materials, including wheat straw (Aslan and Türkman 2005;Fan et al 2012;Soares and Abeliovich 1998), cotton (Volokita et al 1996a), waste newspaper (Volokita et al 1996b), pine bark (Trois et al 2010a, b), crab-shell chitin (Robinson-Lora and Brennan 2009) and synthetic polymers, such as polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) (Hiraishi and Khan 2003), polycaprolactone (PCL) (Boley et al 2000;Boley and Müller 2005;Wang and Wang 2009;Zhou et al 2009;Chu and Wang 2011a, b;Shen and Wang 2011;Chu and Wang 2013;Shen et al 2013a;Wu et al 2013a), PBS (Wu et al 2013b) and polylactic acid (PLA) Shen et al 2013b). However, synthetic polymers are expensive, while natural materials were much cheaper but may bring ammonia (Robinson-Lora and Brennan 2009), high dissolved organic carbon (DOC) release and color problems (Aslan and Türkman 2003).…”