title: Evaluation of different nitrous oxide production models with four continuous long-term wastewater treatment process data series.
abstract: Five activated sludge models describing N2O production by ammonium oxidising bacteria (AOB) were compared to four different long-term process data sets. Each model considers one of the two known N2O production pathways by AOB, namely the AOB denitrification pathway and the hydroxylamine oxidation pathway, with specific kinetic expressions. Satisfactory calibration could be obtained in most cases, but none of the models was able to describe all the N2O data obtained in the different systems with a similar parameter set. Variability of the parameters can be related to difficulties related to undescribed local concentration heterogeneities, physiological adaptation of micro-organisms, a microbial population switch, or regulation between multiple AOB pathways. This variability could be due to a dependence of the N2O production pathways on the nitrite (or free nitrous acid-FNA) concentrations and other operational conditions in different systems. This work gives an overview of the potentialities and limits of single AOB pathway models. Indicating in which condition each single pathway model is likely to explain the experimental observations, this work will also facilitate future work on models in which the two main N2O pathways active in AOB are represented together.
authors.affiliation: INSA, UPS, INP, LISBP, Université de Toulouse, 135 Avenue de Rangueil, 31077, Toulouse, France. sperandio@insa-toulouse.fr.|INRA, UMR792 Ingénierie des Systèmes Biologiques et des Procédés, 31400, Toulouse, France. sperandio@insa-toulouse.fr.|CNRS, UMR5504, 31400, Toulouse, France. sperandio@insa-toulouse.fr.
authors.forename: Mathieu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Spérandio
authors.affiliation: INSA, UPS, INP, LISBP, Université de Toulouse, 135 Avenue de Rangueil, 31077, Toulouse, France.|INRA, UMR792 Ingénierie des Systèmes Biologiques et des Procédés, 31400, Toulouse, France.|CNRS, UMR5504, 31400, Toulouse, France.
authors.forename: Mathieu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pocquet
authors.affiliation: modelEAU, Département de génie civil et de génie des eaux, Université Laval, Quebec, QC, G1V 0A6, Canada.
authors.forename: Lisha
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Advanced Water Management Centre, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: Bing-Jie
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Ni
authors.affiliation: modelEAU, Département de génie civil et de génie des eaux, Université Laval, Quebec, QC, G1V 0A6, Canada.
authors.forename: Peter A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Vanrolleghem
authors.affiliation: Advanced Water Management Centre, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: Zhiguo
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yuan
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000378:metabolism*; D008954:Models, Biological; D009609:Nitrous Oxide / Q000378:metabolism*; D062065:Wastewater / Q000382:microbiology*; D014871:Water Microbiology; D018508:Water Purification
chemical_list: D009609:Nitrous Oxide; D062065:Wastewater
keywords: Calibration; Greenhouse gases; N2O; NO; Nitrification; Wastewater treatment