Diversified metabolism makes novel Thauera strain highly competitive in low carbon wastewater treatment

Thauera, as one of the core members of wastewater biological treatment systems, plays an important role in the process of nitrogen and phosphorus removal from low-carbon source sewage. However, there is a lack of systematic understanding of Thauera's metabolic pathway and genomics. Here we report on the newly isolated Thauera sp. RT1901, which is capable of denitrification using variety carbon sources including aromatic compounds. By comparing the denitrification processes under the conditions of insufficient, adequate and surplus carbon sources, it was found that strain RT1901 could simultaneously use soluble microbial products (SMP) and extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) as electron donors for denitrification. Strain RT1901 was also found to be a denitrifying phosphate accumulating bacterium, able to use nitrate, nitrite, or oxygen as electron acceptors during poly-β-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) catabolism. The annotated genome was used to reconstruct the complete nitrogen and phosphorus metabolism pathways of RT1901. In the process of denitrifying phosphorus accumulation, glycolysis was the only pathway for glycogen metabolism, and the glyoxylic acid cycle replaced the tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA) to supplement the reduced energy. In addition, the abundance of conventional phosphorus accumulating bacteria decreased significantly and the removal rates of total nitrogen (TN) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) increased after the addition of RT1901 in the low carbon/nitrogen (C/N) ratio of anaerobic aerobic anoxic-sequencing batch reactor (AOA-SBR). This research indicated that the diverse metabolic capabilities of Thauera made it more competitive than other bacteria in the wastewater treatment system.

Identification and nitrogen removal characteristics of Thauera sp. FDN-01 and application in sequencing batch biofilm reactor

A strain FDN-01 was isolated from the sequencing batch biofilm reactor (SBBR) which was seeded with wasted activated sludge from a municipal wastewater treatment plant in Shanghai. Bacterium FDN-01 was identified as Thauera sp., and Genbank Sequence_ID was KY393097. By comparing inorganic total nitrogen (TN) removal efficiency by strain FDN-01 under different conditions, the optimal initial pH, carbon source and the ratio of carbon to nitrogen were 7.5, sodium succinate and 4.0, respectively. Inorganic TN removal efficiency was 93% within 3 d while the concentration of nitrate was 100 mg/L, and the type of substrates affected extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) production and the ratio of protein to polysaccharide in the EPS. Further investigation for the application of strain FDN-01 in the SBBRs showed that anoxic ammonia oxidation occurred at room temperature, and the removal efficiencies of inorganic TN were noticeably enhanced by the augmentation of bacterium FDN-01 back into the SBBR. This study provided a promising method of TN removal requiring less carbon source in the wastewater.

Treatment of Ammonium-Rich Digestate from Methane Fermentation Using Aerobic Granular Sludge

Digestate produced by cofermentation of agricultural waste and manure can be difficult to dispose of because its high ammonium content impedes its use in agriculture due to generation of odor and overfertilization. This study investigated the possibility of treating such nitrogen-rich digestate with aerobic granular sludge depending on the nitrogen load in the reactor. At nitrogen loading rate of 1.0 g TN/(L·day), the nitrogen removal efficiency was high (64.9 ± 9.8%), ammonium nitrogen was completely oxidized, and nitrate was the main nitrification product. At nitrogen loading rate of 3.4 g TN/(L·day), ammonium oxidization was still good (93.6 ± 2.0%), but the percentage of partial nitrification was high (over 68%) and nitrogen removal efficiency worsened to 30.2 ± 2.6%. Despite this, the overall amount of nitrogen removed was 0.86 g TN/(L·day) and was over nearly two times higher than at the lower nitrogen loading rate. At both nitrogen loading rates, in the effluent nitrogen in a form of suspended solids predominated. To diminish the overall N loading in the effluent, treatment is therefore recommended enabling removal of solids, e.g., microfiltration, should be applied, or the digestate should be separated into solid and liquid phases, and only the liquid fraction should be subjected to biological treatment. At high N load in aerobic granules, a very versatile community of N-metabolizing microorganisms was present. More than 50% of all bacteria in aerobic granules were able to metabolize nitrogen, and the predominant genera (35%) was Thauera, which indicated that stable ammonium removal was achieved mostly as a result of heterotrophic nitrification.