Completely autotrophic nitrogen-removal over nitrite in two types of reactors

Two lab-scale reactors, suspended-sludge and fluidized-bed, were conducted with the feed of ammonium-rich synthetic wastewater devoid of COD. Completely autotrophic nitrogen-removal process was fulfilled in both reactors and the maximum efficiencies of nitrogen removal were achieved, 65% in the suspended-sludge reactor and 73% in the fluidized-bed reactor respectively. Different from the steady performance of the fluidized-bed reactor, the suspended-sludge reactor came to deteriorate constantly after a period of stable operation, resulting in almost complete loss of the N-removal ability in the suspending system. Molecular methods such as PCR and FISH were employed for describing the microbial characteristics in two systems. This study suggests that a biofilm system is a suitable configuration for completely autotrophic N-removal with more feasibility and stability than a suspending system.