Biological oxidation of dissolved methane in effluents from anaerobic reactors using a down-flow hanging sponge reactor

Anaerobic wastewater treatment plants discharge dissolved methane, which is usually not recovered. To prevent emission of methane, which is a greenhouse gas, we utilized an encapsulated down-flow hanging sponge reactor as a post-treatment to biologically oxidize dissolved methane. Within 3 weeks after reactor start-up, methane removal efficiency of up to 95% was achieved with a methane removal rate of 0.8 kg COD m⁻³ day⁻¹ at an HRT of 2 h. After increasing the methane-loading rate, the maximum methane removal rate reached 2.2 kg COD m⁻³ day⁻¹ at an HRT of 0.5 h. On the other hand, only about 10% of influent ammonium was oxidized to nitrate during the first period, but as airflow was increased to 2.5 L day⁻¹, nitrification efficiency increased to approximately 70%. However, the ammonia oxidation rate then decreased with an increase in the methane-loading rate. These results indicate that methane oxidation occurred preferentially over ammonium oxidation in the reactor. Cloning of the 16S rRNA and pmoA genes as well as phylogenetic and T-RFLP analyses revealed that type I methanotrophs were the dominant methane oxidizers, whereas type II methanotrophs were detected only in minor portion of the reactor.     

Modes of operation and pH control as enhancement factors for partial nitrification with oxygen transport limitation

Sequencing batch (SBR) and continuous operation modes were applied using different pH control strategies to enhance partial nitrification in a biofilm rotating disk reactor. The pH control strategies were supervisory control in the range of 7.5–8.6 and fixed pH at 7.5 and 8.5, at dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations in the range of 0.6–5.0 mg O₂/L. Supervisory pH control enabled operation at a free ammonia concentration inhibitory to the nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) and an optimum for the ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB). The results indicate that both operation modes were simultaneously controlled by oxygen transport and micro-kinetics (influenced by pH and NH₃). The SBR mode with supervisory pH control presented more stable partial nitrification-nitrite accumulation >80% for 249 days than continuous operation. Molecular analyses showed that the SBR operation with supervisory pH control at low DO concentrations contributed to the enrichment of the AOB (>95%) over the NOB (<5%) populations. Therefore, it can be stated that a suitable pH control strategy can act as an enhancement factor of partial nitrification even under oxygen-transport-limiting conditions.