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Updated: Mar 18, 2026

A Novel Bioreactor for High Density Cultivation of Diverse Microbial Communities
Published on: December 25, 2015
Microbial activity balance in size fractionated suspended growth biomass from full-scale sidestream combined
Yijing Shi1, George Wells2, Eberhard Morgenroth3
1Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Ueberlandstr. 133, 8600 Duebendorf, Switzerland; Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Water Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China.
Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to determine the abundance, distribution and activity of aerobic ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and anammox in size fractionated aggregates from full-scale suspended growth combined nitritation-anammox sidestream reactors. Plants with or without a cyclone device were also studied to assess a purported enrichment of anammox granules. Specific aerobic ammonium oxidation rates (p=0.01) and specific oxygen uptake rates (p=0.02) were significantly greater in flocs than in granules. AOB abundance measured using quantitative FISH was significantly higher in flocs than in granules (p=0.01). Conversely, anammox abundance was significantly greater in granules (p=0.03). The average ratio of anammox/AOB in systems employing hydrocyclone separation devices was 2.4, significantly higher (p=0.02) than the average ratio (0.5) in a system without a hydrocyclone. Our results demonstrate substantial functional and population-level segregation between floccular and granular fractions, and provide a key corroboration that cyclone separation devices can increase anammox levels in such systems.
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