Performance of short-cut denitrifying phosphorus removal and microbial community structure in the A2SBR process

Acclimatization of short-cut denitrifying polyphosphate accumulating organisms (SDPAOs), metabolic mechanism, and operating parameters were analyzed to investigate the performance of the anaerobic/anoxic sequencing batch reactor (A(2)SBR) process. The high-throughput sequencing technology was employed to explore the microbial community structures of activated sludge systems. The experimental results illustrated that SDPAOs were successfully enriched with three-phase inoculation for 36 days. The removal rates of TP and NO2--N were 93.22% and 91.36%, respectively, under the optimal parameters of a pH of 7.5, an SRT of 26 days, a temperature of 24 celcius and a COD of 200.00 mg center dot L-1 using acetate as the carbon source. In the anaerobic stage, 82.20% external carbon source was converted into 88.78 mg center dot g(-1) PHB, and the removal rate of NO2--N in the anoxic stage was characterized by Delta NO2--N/Delta PHB, anoxic Delta P/Delta PHBeffective was 0.289, which was higher than anaerobic Delta P/Delta CODeffective of 0.203. Ignavibacterium and Povalibacter with significant phosphorus removal ability were the dominant bacterial genera. The nitrogen and phosphorus removal could be realized simultaneously in an anaerobic/anoxic sequencing batch reactor. Therefore, this study provided an important understanding of the removal of nitrogen and phosphorus from low-carbon nitrogen wastewater.