The autofluorescence characteristics of bacterial intracellular and extracellular substances during the operation of anammox reactor

Anammox is a cost-effective process to treat nitrogenous wastewater. In this work, excitation-emission matrix (EEM) fluorescence spectroscopy was used to characterize the intracellular and extracellular substances of anammox sludge during reactor operation of 276 days. Four main fluorophores were identified from the intracellular substances. Two main protein-like fluorophores were identified from the extracellular substances. Correlation analysis revealed that intracellular 420 peak and humic-like peak had strong correlation with nitrogen removal rate. The two intracellular protein-like peaks had high correlation with MLVSS and MLVSS growth rate. Correlation analysis between different fluorophores discovered that the two peaks in each of these three groups-two intracellular protein-like peaks, two humic acid-like peaks and the two extracellular protein-like peaks had strong intercorrelation, which gave evidence of their homology. A specific method for fluorescence monitoring of anammox reactor were put forward, which included typical fluorescence indexes and their possible values for different operation phases.