[Advanced Denitrification of Municipal Wastewater Achieved via Partial ANAMMOX in Anoxic MBBR]

Anoxic MBBR is a process to achieve advanced denitrification from municipal wastewater. Here, anoxic MBBR was applied as a post-denitrification SBR to achieve advanced denitrification by partial anammox (anaerobic ammonium oxidation). During a 250-day operation, denitrification performance gradually improved and the total nitrogen concentration of the effluent was approximately 5 mg·L^-1. The average nitrate, ammonia, and total inorganic nitrogen removal efficiencies were (97.7±2.9)%, (93.3±2.9)%, and (94.3±2.7)%, respectively, between day 211 and 250. The simultaneous removal of ammonia and nitrate was observed in the anoxic reactor. Analysis of the ammonia removal pathway revealed that assimilation and nitrification were poor in the anoxic MBBR. The anammox activity test and the denitrification performance showed that anammox occurred and played a not insignificant role in the anoxic MBBR. The results of real-time quantitative PCR showed that anammox bacteria enriched in anoxic MBBR, especially in the anoxic carrier biofilms, where the abundance of anammox bacteria increased from 4.37×10⁷ copies·g^-1 to 2.28×10¹⁰ copies·g^-1. This study demonstrates that anoxic carrier biofilms may have potential applications in anammox bacterial enrichment to enhance denitrification from municipal wastewater.