Anaerobic Ammonium Oxidation(ANAMMOX) in a Granular Sludge Reactor and its Bio-molecular Characterization

In this study, granular sludge used in an anaerobic process treating brewery waste was inoculated in a laboratory scale of reactor to induce anaerobic ammonium oxidation(ANAMMOX). The reactor was operated with synthetic wastewater, which prepared at 1:1 ratio of over . Changes in nitrogen concentration, COD, alkalinity and gas production were analyzed. There are 3 phases of spanning in experimental period according to influent nitrogen concentration. In the Phase 1, each of the concentration of and were increased from 1.91 to 14.29 . Ammonium nitrogen loading(same as nitrite nitrogen) was 23.81 in the Phase 2 and 19.05 in the Phase 3, respectively has been removed up to 99% during whole period while the removal efficiency of was significantly varied. In Phase 2, was removed up to 75%. Microorganisms varied temporally through three phases were characterized by 16s rDNA analysis methods. ANAMMOX bacteria were dominantly found in phase 2 when the removal rate of and was the highest up to 99% and 75%, respectively. Due to erroneous exposed to air, the removal efficiency of was unexpectedly lowered, but ANAMMOX bacteria still existed.