Sequential Aeration of Membrane-Aerated Biofilm Reactors for High-Rate Autotrophic Nitrogen Removal: Experimental Demonstration

One-stage autotrophic nitrogen (N) removal, requiring the simultaneous activity of aerobic and anaerobic ammonium oxidizing bacteria (AOB and AnAOB), can be obtained in spatially redox-stratified biofilms. However, previous experience with Membrane-Aerated Biofilm Reactors (MABRs) has revealed a difficulty in reducing the abundance and activity of nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB), which drastically lowers process efficiency. Here we show how sequential aeration is an effective strategy to attain autotrophic N removal in MABRs: Two separate MABRs, which displayed limited or no N removal under continuous aeration, could remove more than 5.5 g N/m(2)/day (at loads up to 8 g N/m(2)/day) by controlled variation of sequential aeration regimes. Daily averaged ratios of the surficial loads of O-2 (oxygen) to NH4+ (ammonium) (L-O2/L-NH4) were close to 1.73 at this optimum. Real-time quantitative PCR based on 16S rRNA gene confirmed that sequential aeration, even at elevated average O-2 loads, stimulated the abundance of AnAOB and AOB and prevented the increase in NOB. Nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions were 100-fold lower compared to other anaerobic ammonium oxidation (Anammox)-nitritation systems. Hence, by applying periodic aeration to MABRs, one-stage autotrophic N removal biofilm reactors can be easily obtained, displaying very competitive removal rates, and negligible N2O emissions.