Mitigating nitrite accumulation during S0-based autotrophic denitrification: Balancing nitrate-nitrite reduction rate with thiosulfate as external electron donor

This study was carried out to determine the effect of influent nitrate loading on nitrite accumulation during elemental-sulfur based denitrification process, and proposed to enhance the nitrogen removal efficiency by mitigating nitrite accumulation with thiosulfate as external electron donor. Along with increasing the nitrate influent loading (from 0.09 kg N/m(3)/d to 1.73 kg N/m(3)/d) by shortening the empty bed contact time (EBCT) (from 5 h to 0.25 h), the nitrate removal loading increased from 0.08 to 0.83 kg N/m(3)/d. Meanwhile, the raise of the nitrate influent loading obviously aggravated the nitrite accumulation. Herein, nitrite began to accumulate since the nitrate influent loading was over 0.86 kg N/m(3)/d, and a maximum nitrite accumulation of 2.39 mg/L was observed under the 0.25 h of EBCT and 15 mg/L of nitrate influent concentration condition. Thiosulfate was used as the external electron donor to accelerate the nitrite reduction rate in order to mitigate the nitrite accumulation. As a result, the nitrite accumulation significantly decreased from 2.39 mg/L to 0.17 mg/L with the thiosulfate dosage of 13.36 mg/L. However, the nitrite accumulation bounced with the on-going increase of the thiosulfate dosage, indicating that the nitrate reduction rate and nitrite reduction rate were accelerated alternatively. After dosing thiosulfate, the relative abundances of sulfurimonas and ferritrophicum grew up significantly.

Automated summary

This study investigated the impact of influent nitrate loading on nitrite accumulation during denitrification process and proposed the use of thiosulfate to mitigate the nitrite accumulation. Results showed that increasing nitrate loading exacerbated nitrite accumulation, but thiosulfate effectively reduced nitrite accumulation. However, nitrite accumulation rebounded with higher thiosulfate dosages, indicating accelerated nitrate and nitrite reduction rates alternately. Thiosulfate addition also led to significant growth in relative abundances of sulfurimonas and ferritrophicum.