Biological iron nitrogen cycle in ecological floating bed: Nitrogen removal improvement and nitrous oxide emission reduction. (1st January 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sun, Shanshan; Gu, Xushun; Zhang, Manping; Tang, Li; He, Shengbing; Huang, Jungchen
• Is Part Of: Environmental pollution. Volume 268(2021)Part A
• Publication Date: 2021-01-01
• Subjects: Ecological floating beds -- Nitrogen removal -- Nitrous oxide emission -- Iron release dynamic -- Iron cycle; Pollution -- Periodicals; Pollution -- Environmental aspects -- Periodicals; Environmental Pollution -- Periodicals; Pollution -- Périodiques; Pollution -- Aspect de l'environnement -- Périodiques; Pollution -- Effets physiologiques -- Périodiques; Pollution; Pollution -- Environmental aspects; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 363.73
• DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2020.115842
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0269-7491

Abstract

Abstract: Ecological floating beds (EFBs) have become a superior method for treating secondary effluent from wastewater treatment plant. However, insufficient electron donor limited its denitrification efficiency. Iron scraps from lathe cutting waste consist of more than 95% iron could be used as electron donors to enhance denitrification. In this study, EFBs with and without iron scraps supplementation (EFB-Fe and EFB, respectively) were conducted to explore the impacts of iron scraps addition on nitrogen removal, nitrous oxide (N2 O) emissions and microbial communities. Results showed the total nitrogen (TN) removal in EFB-Fe improved to 79% while that in EFB was 56%. N2 O emission was 0–6.20 mg m −2 d −1 (EFB-Fe) and 1.74–15.2 mg m −2 d −1 (EFB). Iron scraps could not only improve nitrogen removal efficiency, but also reduce N2 O emissions. In addition, high-throughput sequencing analysis revealed that adding iron scraps could improve the sum of denitrification related genera, among which Novosphingobium accounted for the highest proportion (6.75% of PFe1, 4.24% of PFe2, 3.18% of PFe3). Iron-oxidizing bacteria and iron-respiring bacteria associated with and nitrate reducing bacteria mainly concentrated on the surface of iron scraps. Principal co-ordinates analysis (PCoA) indicated that iron scraps were the key factor affecting microbial community composition. The mechanism of iron scraps enhanced nitrogen removal was realized by enhanced biological denitrification process. Iron release dynamic from iron scraps was detected in bench-scale experiment and the electron transfer mechanism was that Fe 0 transferred electrons directly to NO3 − -N, and biological iron nitrogen cycle occurred in EFB-Fe without secondary pollution. Graphical abstract: Image 1 Highlights: TN removal was improved from 41% to 79% in EFB-Fe when HRT was 3 days. Iron scraps made N2 O fluxes decreased by 27–100%. Microbial community was affected by iron scraps rather than influent nitrogen form.