Growth of Nitrosococcus-Related Ammonia Oxidizing Bacteria Coincides with Extremely Low pH Values in Wastewater with High Ammonia Content.

Ammonia oxidation decreases the pH in wastewaters where alkalinity is limited relative to total ammonia. The activity of ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB), however, typically decreases with pH and often ceases completely in slightly acidic wastewaters. Nevertheless, nitrification at low pH has been reported in reactors treating human urine, but it has been unclear which organisms are involved. In this study, we followed the population dynamics of ammonia oxidizing organisms and reactor performance in synthetic fully hydrolyzed urine as the pH decreased over time in response to a decrease in the loading rate. Populations of the ß-proteobacterial Nitrosomonas europaea lineage were abundant at the initial pH close to 6, but the growth of a possibly novel Nitrosococcus-related AOB genus decreased the pH to the new level of 2.2, challenging the perception that nitrification is inhibited entirely at low pH values, or governed exclusively by ß-proteobacterial AOB or archaea. With the pH shift, nitrite oxidizing bacteria were not further detected, but nitrous acid (HNO2) was still removed through chemical decomposition to nitric oxide (NO) and nitrate. The growth of acid-tolerant γ-proteobacterial AOB should be prevented, by keeping the pH above 5.4, which is a typical pH limit for the N. europaea lineage. Otherwise, the microbial community responsible for high-rate nitrification can be lost, and strong emissions of hazardous volatile nitrogen compounds such as NO are likely.

Operating a pilot-scale nitrification/distillation plant for complete nutrient recovery from urine.

Source-separated urine contains most of the excreted nutrients, which can be recovered by using nitrification to stabilize the urine before concentrating the nutrient solution with distillation. The aim of this study was to test this process combination at pilot scale. The nitrification process was efficient in a moving bed biofilm reactor with maximal rates of 930 mg N L(-1) d(-1). Rates decreased to 120 mg N L(-1) d(-1) after switching to more concentrated urine. At high nitrification rates (640 mg N L(-1) d(-1)) and low total ammonia concentrations (1,790 mg NH4-N L(-1) in influent) distillation caused the main primary energy demand of 71 W cap(-1) (nitrification: 13 W cap(-1)) assuming a nitrogen production of 8.8 g N cap(-1) d(-1). Possible process failures include the accumulation of the nitrification intermediate nitrite and the selection of acid-tolerant ammonia-oxidizing bacteria. Especially during reactor start-up, the process must therefore be carefully supervised. The concentrate produced by the nitrification/distillation process is low in heavy metals, but high in nutrients, suggesting a good suitability as an integral fertilizer.

Modeling the low pH limit of Nitrosomonas eutropha in high-strength nitrogen wastewaters.

In wastewater treatment, the rate of ammonia oxidation decreases with pH and stops very often slightly below a pH of 6. Free ammonia (NH3) limitation, inhibition by nitrous acid (HNO2), limitation by inorganic carbon or direct effect of high proton concentrations have been proposed to cause the rate decrease with pH as well as the cessation of ammonia oxidation. In this study, we compare an exponential pH term common for food microbiology with conventionally applied rate laws based on Monod-type kinetics for NH3 limitation and non-competitive HNO2 inhibition as well as sigmoidal pH functions to model the low pH limit of ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB). For this purpose we conducted well controlled batch experiments which were then simulated with a computer model. The results showed that kinetics based on NH3 limitation and HNO2 inhibition can explain the rate decrease of ammonia oxidation between pH 7 and 6, but fail in predicting the pH limit of Nitrosomonas eutropha at pH 5.4 and rates close to that limit. This is where the exponential pH term becomes important: this term decreases the rate of ammonia oxidation to zero, as the pH limit approaches. Previously proposed sigmoidal pH functions that affect large pH regions, however, led to an overestimation of the pH effect and could therefore not be applied successfully. We show that the proposed exponential pH term can be explained quantitatively with thermodynamic principles: at low pH values, the energy available from the proton motive force is too small for the NADH production in Nitrosomonas eutropha and related AOB causing an energy limited state of the bacterial cell. Hence, energy limitation and not inhibition or limitation of enzymes is responsible for the cessation of the AOB activity at low pH values.