title: Ammonium removal of drinking water at low temperature by activated carbon filter biologically enhanced with heterotrophic nitrifying bacteria.
abstract: We sought to confirm whether use of Acinetobacter strains Y7 and Y16, both strains of heterotrophic nitrifying bacteria, was practical for removing ammonium (NH4 (+)-N) from drinking water at low temperatures. To test this, ammonium-containing drinking water was treated with strains Y7 and Y16 at 8 and 2 °C. Continuous ammonium treatment was conducted in order to evaluate the performance of three biologically enhanced activated carbon (BEAC) filters in removing ammonium. The three BEAC filters were inoculated with strain Y7, strain Y16, and a mixture of strains Y7 and Y16, respectively. A granular activated carbon (GAC) filter, without inoculation by any strains, was tested in parallel with the BEAC filters as control. The results indicated that NH4 (+)-N removal was significant when a BEAC filter was inoculated with the mixture of strains Y7 and Y16 (BEAC-III filter). Amounts of 0.44 ± 0.05 and 0.25 ± 0.05 mg L(-1) NH4 (+)-N were removed using the BEAC-III filter at 8 and 2 °C, respectively. These values were 2.8-4.0-fold higher than the values of ammonium removal acquired using the GAC filter. The synergistic effect of using strains Y7 and Y16 in concert was the cause of the high-ammonium removal efficiency achieved by using the BEAC-III filter at low temperatures. In addition, a high C/N ratio may promote NH4 (+)-N removal efficiency by improving biomass and microbial activity. This study provides new insight into the use of biofilters to achieve biological removal of ammonium at low temperature.
authors.affiliation: School of Municipal and Environment Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150090, People's Republic of China. qinwenhit@163.com.
authors.forename: Wen
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: School of Municipal and Environment Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150090, People's Republic of China. hitlwg@126.com.|State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin, 150090, People's Republic of China. hitlwg@126.com.
authors.forename: Wei-Guang
authors.initials: WG
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Municipal and Environment Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150090, People's Republic of China. duo0314@163.com.
authors.forename: Duo-Ying
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: School of Municipal and Environment Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150090, People's Republic of China. hxf7777@126.com.
authors.forename: Xiao-Fei
authors.initials: XF
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: School of Municipal and Environment Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150090, People's Republic of China. songyang0725102@126.com.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Song
mesh_terms: D064751:Ammonium Compounds / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D001419:Bacteria / Q000378:metabolism*; D018533:Biomass; D002606:Charcoal; D003080:Cold Temperature; D060766:Drinking Water / Q000737:chemistry*; D005374:Filtration / Q000379:methods*; D052836:Heterotrophic Processes; D018508:Water Purification / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D064751:Ammonium Compounds; D060766:Drinking Water; D002606:Charcoal
keywords: Ammonium; Biologically enhanced activated carbon filtration; Drinking water; Heterotrophic nitrification bacteria; Low temperatures; Nitrification ratio