Romain Lemaire

Micro-scale observations of the structure of aerobic microbial granules used for the treatment of nutrient-rich industrial wastewater

The structure and function of aerobic microbial granules from a lab-scale sequencing batch reactor treating nutrient-rich abattoir wastewater were investigated. These wastewater-fed granules were examined using a wide range of micro-scale techniques including light microscopy, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, fluorescent in situ hybridisation (FISH) combined with confocal laser scanning microscopy and oxygen and pH microsensors, in conjunction with a range of measurements in the bulk liquid phase. Interesting structural features were observed in these granules that have not been reported in synthetic-fed granules. The complex nature of abattoir wastewater was suggested to be responsible for accelerating the breaking process of large mature granules due to a rapid clogging of the granules pores and channels and for the very diverse microbial community observed displaying specific spatial distribution throughout the granules. More importantly, the dissolution at lower pH of mineral complexes associated to the granule matrix of extracellular polymeric substances might have caused the structural damages observed on the granules even though some pH buffer capacity was observed inside these granules. Ciliate protozoa were found to be very abundant on the surface of these wastewater-fed granules, which could potentially assist with reducing the high levels of suspended solids usually present in the aerobic granular sludge effluent. All these observations provide support to future studies on aerobic granular sludge treating real wastewater especially with regard to the granule structure and the mechanisms involved in their formation.

Achieving the nitrite pathway using aeration phase length control and step-feed in an SBR removing nutrients from abattoir wastewater.

Aeration phase length control and step‐feed of wastewater are used to achieve nitrogen removal from wastewater via nitrite in sequencing batch reactors (SBR). Aeration is switched off as soon as ammonia oxidation is completed, which is followed by the addition of a fraction of the wastewater that the SBR receives over a cycle to facilitate denitrification. The end‐point of ammonia oxidation is detected from the on‐line measured pH and oxygen uptake rate (OUR). The method was implemented in an SBR achieving biological nitrogen and phosphorus removal from anaerobically pre‐treated abattoir wastewater. The degree of nitrite accumulation during the aeration period was monitored along with the variation in the nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB) population using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) techniques. It is demonstrated that the nitrite pathway could be repeatedly and reliably achieved, which significantly reduced the carbon requirement for nutrient removal. Model‐based studies show that the establishment of the nitrite pathway was primarily the result of a gradual reduction of the amount of nitrite that is available to provide energy for the growth of NOB, eventually leading to the elimination of NOB from the system. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2008;100: 1228–1236.

Modeling of Nitrous Oxide Production from Nitritation Reactors Treating Real Anaerobic Digestion Liquor

In this work, a mathematical model including both ammonium oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and heterotrophic bacteria (HB) is constructed to predict N2O production from the nitritation systems receiving the real anaerobic digestion liquor. This is for the first time that N2O production from such systems was modeled considering both AOB and HB. The model was calibrated and validated using experimental data from both lab- and pilot-scale nitritation reactors. The model predictions matched the dynamic N2O, ammonium, nitrite and chemical oxygen demand data well, supporting the capability of the model. Modeling results indicated that HB are the dominant contributor to N2O production in the above systems with the dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration of 0.5–1.0 mg O2/L, accounting for approximately 75% of N2O production. The modeling results also suggested that the contribution of HB to N2O production decreased with the increasing DO concentrations, from 75% at DO = 0.5 mg O2/L to 25% at DO = 7.0 mg O2/L, with a corresponding increase of the AOB contribution (from 25% to 75%). Similar to HB, the total N2O production rate also decreased dramatically from 0.65 to 0.25 mg N/L/h when DO concentration increased from 0.5 to 7.0 mg O2/L.