Long-Term Low Dissolved Oxygen Operation Decreases N₂O Emissions in the Activated Sludge Process

Nitrous oxide (N₂O) is an important greenhouse gas and a dominant ozone-depleting substance. Nitrification in the activated sludge process (ASP) is an important N₂O emission source. This study demonstrated that a short-term low dissolved oxygen (DO) increased the N₂O emissions by six times, while long-term low DO operation decreased the N₂O emissions by 54% (P < 0.01). Under long-term low DO, the ammonia oxidizer abundance in the ASP increased significantly, and thus, complete nitrification was recovered and no NH₃ or nitrite accumulated. Moreover, long-term low DO decreased the abundance of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) by 28%, while increased the abundance of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) by 507%, mainly due to their higher oxygen affinity. As a result, AOA outnumbered AOB with the AOA/AOB amoA gene ratio increasing to 19.5 under long-term low DO. The efficient nitrification and decreased AOB abundance might not increase N₂O production via AOB under long-term low DO conditions. The enriched AOA could decrease the N₂O emissions because they were reported to lack canonical nitric oxide (NO) reductase genes that convert NO to N₂O. Probably because of AOA enrichment, the positive and significant (P = 0.02) correlation of N₂O emission and nitrite concentration became insignificant (P = 0.332) after 80 days of low DO operation. Therefore, ASPs can be operated with low DO and extended sludge age to synchronously reduce N₂O production and carbon dioxide emissions owing to lower aeration energy without compromising the nitrification efficiency.