Nitrogen pollution of waters has sometimes caused severe eutrophication, leading to the death of fishes and most aquatic life. There is therefore a need for efficient and cost-effective methods to remove nitrogen from ammonium-rich wastewaters. Anaerobic ammonium oxidation (ANAMMOX) is a promising process to remove nitrogen because this process directly oxidizes ammonium (NH4+) to dinitrogen gas (N2) under anoxic condition. Nonetheless, a challenge of this process is that chemolithoautotrophic Anammox bacteria grow slowly at the beginning, thus resulting in low Anammox biomass and instability of reactors. Such issues can be overcome by granulation of the Anammox sludge. Here, we review the characteristics of the Anammox bacteria, and the formation, structure and flotation of Anammox granules under high hydraulic loadings. We also evaluate the performances of full-scale granular Anammox processes. The major points are: 1) Anammox bacteria secrete a large amount of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), up to 415 mg g?1 of volatile suspended solids (VSS), containing many hydrophobic functional groups that facilitate biomass granulation. 2) Granulation enhances the sludge settling property and retention time, which contributes to the extremely high nitrogen removal rate of 77 kg m?3 d?1 of Anammox upflow reactors. 3) Flotation of Anammox granules frequently occurs under nitrogen removal rate higher than 10 kg m?3 d?1, which is mainly due to the overproduction of EPS under high hydraulic conditions. 相似文献
The quantification and effects of system pH value on the interactions between Pb(II) and the biopolymer in activated sludge were investigated. The biopolymer had two protein-like fluorescence peaks (Ex/Em = 280 nm/326–338 nm for peak A; Ex/Em = 220–230 nm/324–338 nm for peak B). The fluorescence intensities of peak B were higher than those of peak A. The fluorophores of both peaks could be largely quenched by Pb(II), and the quencher dose for peak B was about half of that for peak A. The modified Stern-Volmer equation well depicted the fluorescence quenching titration. The quenching constant (Ka) values for both peaks decreased with rising system pH value, and then sharply decreased under alkaline conditions. It could be attributed to that the alkaline conditions caused the reduction of available Pb(II) due to the occurrence of Pb(OH)2 sediments. The Ka values of peak B were bigger than those for peak A at the same system pH values. Accordingly, the aromatic proteins (peak B) played a key role in the interactions between metal ions and the biopolymer.