Continuous nitrous oxide abatement in a novel denitrifying off-gas bioscrubber

The potential of a bioscrubber composed of a packed bed absorption column coupled to a stirred tank denitrification bioreactor (STR) was assessed for 95 days for the continuous abatement of a diluted air emission of N2O at different liquid recycling velocities. N2O removal efficiencies of up to 40 ± 1 % were achieved at the highest recirculation velocity (8 m h(-1)) at an empty bed residence time of 3 min using a synthetic air emission containing N2O at 104 ± 12 ppmv. N2O was absorbed in the packed bed column and further reduced in the STR at efficiencies >80 % using methanol as electron donor. The long-term operation of the bioscrubber suggested that the specialized N2O degrading community established was not able to use N2O as nitrogen source. Additional nitrification assays showed that the activated sludge used as inoculum was not capable of aerobically oxidizing N2O to nitrate or nitrite, regardless of the inorganic carbon concentration tested. Denitrification assays confirmed the ability of non-acclimated activated sludge to readily denitrify N2O at a specific rate of 3.9 mg N2O g VSS h(-1) using methanol as electron donor. This study constitutes, to the best of our knowledge, the first systematic assessment of the continuous abatement of N2O in air emission. A characterization of the structure of the microbial population in the absorption column by DGGE-sequencing revealed a high microbial diversity and the presence of heterotrophic denitrifying methylotrophs.