Applicability of an extant batch respirometric assay in describing dynamics of ammonia and nitrite oxidation in a nitrifying bioreactor

Several techniques have been proposed for biokinetic estimation of nitrification. Recently, an extant respirometric assay has been presented that yields kinetic parameters for both nitrification steps with minimal physiological change to the microorganisms during the assay. Herein, the ability of biokinetic parameter estimates from the extant respirometric assay to adequately describe concurrently obtained NH4+-N and NO2--N substrate depletion profiles is evaluated. Based on our results, in general, the substrate depletion profiles resulted in a higher estimate of the maximum specific growth rate coefficient, mu(max) for both NH4+-N to NO2--N oxidation and NO2--N to NO3--N oxidation compared to estimates from the extant respirograms. The trends in the kinetic parameter estimates from the different biokinetic estimation techniques are paralleled in the nature of substrate depletion profiles obtained from best-fit parameters. Based on a visual inspection, in general, best-fit parameters from optimally designed complete respirograms provided a better description of the substrate depletion profiles than estimates from isolated respirograms. Nevertheless, the sum of the squared errors for the best-fit respirometry based parameters was outside the 95% joint confidence interval computed for the best-fit substrate depletion based parameters. Notwithstanding the difference in kinetic parameter estimates determined in this study, the different biokinetic estimation techniques still are close to estimates reported in literature. Additional parameter identifiability and sensitivity analysis of parameters from substrate depletion assays revealed high precision of parameters and high parameter correlation. Although biokinetic estimation via automated extant respirometry is far more facile than via manual substrate depletion measurements, additional sensitivity analyses are needed to test the impact of differences in the resulting parameter values on continuous reactor performance.