Kinetic Modeling of Inhibition of Ammonia Oxidation by Nitrite under Low Dissolved Oxygen Conditions
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 134, Issue 3
Abstract
In recent years the application of partial nitrification techniques has been denoted as very promising. These methods are based on the oxidation of ammonia to nitrite and the inhibition of the nitratation using different strategies. In most cases, this inhibition causes an increase in the concentration of nitrite. However, the effect of high nitrite concentrations under low dissolved oxygen (DO) conditions on the nitrification process is not well understood. In this paper, the effect of ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate concentrations on the nitrification process under low dissolved oxygen concentrations were studied using respirometric techniques. Results showed that the specific oxygen uptake rate (SOUR) followed a Monod-type equation with respect to the DO concentration. The coefficient was constant with respect to the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate within the tested concentrations; in addition, was constant with respect to ammonia and nitrate but it increased linearly with the nitrite concentration, suggesting that nitrite was a competitive inhibitor of the SOUR. The inhibitory effect of nitrite was reverted by washing, in accordance with a competition model. From the data obtained using the open respirometer, the ratio between the oxygen consumption (OC) corresponding to each pulse of ammonia at different nitrite concentrations and the OC in the absence of nitrite was calculated. The experimental ratio was almost constant with respect to the nitrite concentration and it was close to the literature value. Finally, simulation results agree with the experimental data confirming that the proposed competition model represented adequately the inhibitory effect of nitrite on the respiration rate of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The writers gratefully acknowledge the financial support given by UNLP, CONICET, Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica Argentina.
References
Anthonisen, A. C., Loher, R. C., Prakasam, T. B. S., and Srinath, E. G. (1976). “Inhibition of nitrification by ammonia and nitrous acid.” J. Water Pollut. Control Fed., 48(5), 835–852.
Antileo, C., Aspé, E., Urrutla, H., Zaror, C., and Roeckel, M. (2002). “Nitrifying biomass acclimation to high ammonia concentration.” J. Environ. Eng., 128(4), 367–375.
Chandran, K., and Smets, B. (2000). “Single-step nitrification erroneously describe batch ammonia oxidation profiles when nitrite oxidation becomes rate limiting.” Biotechnol. Bioeng., 68(4), 396–406.
Coen, F., Petersen, B., Vanrolleghem, P. A., Vanderhaegen, B., and Henze, M. (1998). “Model-based characterization, hydraulic, kinetic and influent properties of an industrial WWTP.” Water Sci. Technol., 37(12), 317–326.
Guisasola, A., Jubany, I., Baeza, J. A., Carrera, J., and Lafuente, J. (2005). “Respirometric estimation of the oxygen affinity constants for biological ammonium and nitrite oxidation.” J. Chem. Technol. Biotechnol., 80(4), 388–396.
Henze, M., Grady, C. P. L., Jr., Gujer, W., Marais, G. V. R., and Matsuo, T. (1987). “Activated sludge model No.” IAWPRC Scientific and Technical Rep. No. 1, IAWQ, London.
Henze, M., Harremoës, P., Jansen, J. C., and Arvin, E. (2002). Watewater treatment, 3rd Ed., Springer, New York.
Kuai, L., and Verstraete, W. (1998). “Ammonium removal by the oxygen-limited autotrophic nitrification-denitrification system.” Appl. Environ. Microbiol., 64(11), 4500–4506.
Orhon, D., and Artan, N. (1994). Modelling of activated sludge systems, Technomic, Basel, Switzerland.
Painter, H. A. (1970). “A review of literature on inorganic nitrogen metabolism in microorganisms.” Water Res., 4(6), 393–450.
Ros, M. (1993). Respirometry of activated sludge, Technomic, Basel, Switzerland.
Stenstrom, M. K., and Poduska, R. (1980). “The effect of dissolved oxygen concentration on nitrification.” Water Res., 14(6), 643–649.
Surmacz-Gorzka, J., Gernaey, K., Demuynck, C., Vanrolleghem, P., and Verstraete, W. (1996). “Nitrification monitoring in activated sludge by oxygen uptake rate (OUR) measurements.” Water Res., 30(5), 1228–1236.
Third, K. A., Paxman, J., Schmid, M., Strous, M., Jetten, M. S. M., and Cord-Ruwish, R. (2005). “Enrichment of Anammox from activated sludge and its application in the CANON process.” Microb. Ecol., 49(2), 236–244.
Van Hulle, S. W. H., Van den Broeck, S., Maertens, J., Villez, K., Donckels, B. M. R., Schelstraete, G., Volcke, E. I. P., and Vanrolleghem, P. A. (2005). “Construction, start-up and operation of a continuously aerated laboratory-scale SHARON reactor in view of coupling with an Anamox reactor.” Water SA, 31(3), 327–334.
Vanrolleghem, P. A., Gernaey, K., Petersen, B., De Clerq, B., Coen, F., and Ottoy, J. P. (1998). “Limitations of short-term experiments designed for identifications of activated sludge biodegradation models by fast dynamic phenomena.” Proc., 7th IFAC Conf. on Computer Applications in Biotechnology CAB7, IFAC, Osaka, Japan, 567–572.
Vanrolleghem, P. A., Kong, Z., Rombouts, G., and Verstraete, W. (1994). “An on-line respirographic biosensor for the characterization of load and toxicity of wastewaters.” J. Chem. Technol. Biotechnol., 59(4), 321–333.
Villaverde, S., García-Encina, P., and Fdz-Polanco, F. (1997). “Influence of pH over nitrifying biofilm activity in submerged biofilters.” Water Res., 31(5), 1180–1186.
Wiesmann, U. (1994). Biological nitrogen removal from wastewater, Advances in Biochemical Engineering, Vol. 51, Springer, Berlin, 113–154.
Zumft, W. G. (1993). “The biological role of nitric oxide in bacteria.” Arch. Microbiol., 160(4), 253–246.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2008 ASCE.
History
Received: Oct 16, 2006
Accepted: Aug 27, 2007
Published online: Mar 1, 2008
Published in print: Mar 2008
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.