title: Anaerobic ammonium oxidation in polyvinyl alcohol and sodium alginate immobilized biomass system: a potential tool to maintain anammox biomass in application.
abstract: Anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) has been proved to be a promising nitrogen removal method for treating ammonium-rich wastewater. However, because of the low-growth rate of anammox bacteria, maintenance of a sufficient amount of anammox biomass in reactor became a key factor in application. Gel immobilization is an efficient method to prevent biomass from being washed out and to promote hyper-concentrated cultures. This study focused on a nitrogen removal process by anammox enrichment culture immobilized in polyvinyl alcohol and sodium alginate (PVA-SA) gel beads. The rapid startup of reactor demonstrated that gel entrapment was supposed to be a highly effective technique for immobilizing anammox bacteria. The anammox bacteria present in the enrichment were identified to be Jettenia-like species (>98%). Moreover, the effect of hydraulic retention time (HRT), pH, and temperature on immobilized anammox processes were investigated. The effect of pH and temperature on the anammox process was evidently weakened in PVA-SA immobilized gel beads, however, the effect of HRT on the anammox reaction was enhanced. Therefore, a stable operated reactor could be obtained in an anaerobic sequencing batch reactor, which proved gel immobilization was an excellent method to maintain the biomass in anammox reactor for application.
authors.affiliation: Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Ecological Remediation for Industrial Agglomeration area, College of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China E-mail: ppyyhu@scut.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Gang-Li
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Ecological Remediation for Industrial Agglomeration area, College of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China E-mail: ppyyhu@scut.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Ecological Remediation for Industrial Agglomeration area, College of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China E-mail: ppyyhu@scut.edu.cn; State Key Lab of Pulp and Paper Engineering, College of Light Industry and Food Science, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, China.
authors.forename: Yong-You
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Hu
mesh_terms: D000464:Alginates / Q000737:chemistry*; D064751:Ammonium Compounds / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D000693:Anaerobiosis; D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D018533:Biomass; D019149:Bioreactors; D020723:Glucuronic Acid / Q000737:chemistry; D006603:Hexuronic Acids / Q000737:chemistry; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D010802:Phylogeny; D011142:Polyvinyl Alcohol / Q000737:chemistry*; D013696:Temperature; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D000464:Alginates; D064751:Ammonium Compounds; D006603:Hexuronic Acids; D020723:Glucuronic Acid; D011142:Polyvinyl Alcohol