Effect of influent C/N ratio on N2O emissions from anaerobic/anoxic/oxic biological nitrogen removal processes

The problem of producing strong greenhouse gas of nitrous oxide (N₂O) from biological nitrogen removal (BNR) process in wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) has elicited great concern from various sectors. In this study, three laboratory-scale wastewater treatment systems, with influent C/N ratios of 3.4, 5.4, and 7.5, were set up to study the effect of influent C/N ratio on N₂O generation in anaerobic/anoxic/oxic (A²O) process. Results showed, with the increased influent C/N ratio, N₂O generation from both nitrification and denitrification process was decreased, and the N₂O-N conversion ratio of the process was obviously reduced from 2.23 to 0.05%. Nitrification rate in oxic section was reduced, while denitrification rate in anaerobic and anoxic section was elevated and the removal efficiency of COD, NH₄ ⁺-N, TN, and TP was enhanced in different extent. As the C/N ratio increased from 3.4 to 7.5, activities of three key denitrifying enzymes of nitrate reductase, nitrite reductase, and nitrous oxide reductase were increased. Moreover, microorganism analysis indicated that the relative abundance of ammonium-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) were positively correlated with N₂O generation, which was reduced from (8.42 ± 3.65) to (3.61 ± 1.66)% and (10.38 ± 4.12) to (4.67 ± 1.62)%, respectively. NosZ gene copy numbers of the A²O system were increased from (1.19 ± 0.49) × 10⁷ to (2.84 ± 0.54) × 10⁸ copies/g MLSS with the influent C/N ratio elevated from 3.4 to 7.5. Hence, appropriate influent C/N condition of A²O process could optimize the microbial community structure that simultaneously improve treatment efficiency and decrease the N₂O generation.