Rapidly achieving partial nitrification of municipal wastewater in enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) reactor: Effect of heterotrophs proliferation and microbial interactions

Stable nitritation is the major challenge for short-cut nitrogen removal from municipal wastewater. This paper demonstrated a rapid achievement of partial nitrification (PN) in an enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) reactor treating domestic wastewater. Polyphosphate accumulating organisms (PAOs) were enriched operated at a short aerobic HRT (2.0 h) and SRT (10 d), with satisfactory phosphorus removal efficiency (95.9%). Both of ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB) were elutriated simultaneously. Interestingly, AOB recovered much faster than NOB by a subsequent extension of aerobic HRT and SRT, resulting in a rapid development of PN within 15 days. Ammonia oxidation rates of AOB significantly increased by 44.2%, facilitating a high nitrite accumulation rate (NAR) of 95.8%. Genus Tetrasphaera, Halomonas, Paracoccus and Candidatus_Accumulibacter belonging to PAOs accounted for 4.6%. The proliferation of heterotrophs, typically as PAOs, maximized the microbial competition against NOB by favoring AOB activity and synergy with functional bacteria.