Performance and microbial community of a novel PVA/iron-carbon (Fe–C) immobilized bioreactor for nitrate removal from groundwater

Abstract

Abstract An efficient immobilized denitrification bioreactor functioning under anaerobic conditions was developed by combining bacterial immobilization technology with iron-carbon (Fe–C) particles. The effects of key factors on nitrate (NO3−–N) removal efficiency were invested, such as the carbon-nitrogen ratio (C/N), pH and hydraulic retention time (HRT). Experimental results show that 100.00% NO3−–N removal efficiency and a low level of nitrite (NO2−–N) accumulation less than 0.05 mg L−1 were obtained under the condition of a C/N ratio of 3, pH 7.0 and HRT of 6 h. Meteorological chromatographic analysis showed that the final product of denitrification was mainly nitrogen (N2). The main component of precipitation formed in the bioreactor was characterized as Fe3O4 by X-ray diffraction. High-throughput sequencing analysis indicated that the dominant bacterial class in the Fe–C bioreactor was Gammaproteobacteria, while the dominant genera were Zoogloea and Azospira, the relative abundances of which were as high as 23.25 and 15.43%, respectively.