BACKGROUND
Traditional aerobic autotrophic nitrification and anoxic heterotrophic denitrification have many limitations. Recently, the simultaneous heterotrophic nitrification–aerobic denitrification (HN‐AD) process has received increasing attention. Thus, the possibility of the simultaneous removal of bisphenols and NH4+‐N via HN‐AD was investigated.
RESULTS
A bisphenols‐degrading bacterial consortium was enriched and capable of degrading 50 mg L−1 bisphenol A, 300 mg L−1 4,4‐dihydroxybenzophenone, 375 mg L−1 bisphenol F (BPF) and 10 mg L−1 bis(4‐hydroxyphenyl)sulfide under aerobic conditions. Further studies showed that the bacterial consortium could completely degrade 300 mg L−1 BPF and remove NH4+‐N at 35 °C with 150 rpm at the C/N ratio of over 10. Moreover, BPF mineralization and NH4+‐N reduction to N2 were observed. Clone library analysis indicated that Salmonella enterica, Enterobacter,Citrobacter and Pseudomonas could cooperate to degrade BPF and reduce NH4+‐N to N2. Among these species, the isolated Pseudomonas sp. HS‐2 was capable of simultaneous BPF degradation and NH4+‐N removal via HN‐AD.
CONCLUSION
The experimental results demonstrated that the enriched bacterial consortium and the isolated strain HS‐2 could simultaneously remove BPF and NH4+‐N via HN‐AD, indicating that this is a potential way for the treatment of wastewaters containing these compounds. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry