Step-feeding food waste fermentation liquid as supplementary carbon source for low C/N municipal wastewater treatment: Bench scale performance and response of microbial community

Municipal wastewater treatment often lacks carbon source, while carbon-rich organics in food waste are deficiently utilized. In this study, the food waste fermentation liquid (FWFL) was step-fed into a bench-scale step-feed three-stage anoxic/aerobic system (SFTS-A/O), to investigate its performance in nutrients removal and the response of microbial community as a supplementary carbon source. The results showed that the total nitrogen (TN) removal rate increased by 21.8-109.3% after step-feeding FWFL. However, the biomass of the SFTS-A/O system was increased by 14.6% and 11.9% in the two phases of the experiment, respectively. Proteobacteria was found to be the dominant functional phyla induced by FWFL, and the increase of its abundance attributed to the enrichment of denitrifying bacteria and carbohydrate-metabolizing bacteria was responsible for the biomass increase. Azospira belonged to Proteobacteria phylum was the dominant denitrifying genera when step-fed with FWFL, its abundance was increased from 2.7% in series 1 (S1) to 18.6% in series 2 (S2) and became the keystone species in the microbial networks. Metagenomics analysis revealed that step-feeding FWFL enhanced the abundance of denitrification and carbohydrates-metabolism genes, which were encode mainly by Proteobacteria. This study constitutes a key step towards the application of FWFL as a supplementary carbon source for low C/N municipal wastewater treatment.

Automated summary

In this study, food waste fermentation liquid (FWFL) was step-fed into a bench-scale step-feed three-stage anoxic/aerobic system (SFTS-A/O) to investigate its performance in nutrients removal and microbial community response. The results showed that TN removal rate increased significantly after step-feeding FWFL, and the biomass of the system also increased. Proteobacteria was found to be the dominant functional phyla induced by FWFL, and the increase of its abundance was responsible for the biomass increase. Metagenomics analysis revealed that step-feeding FWFL enhanced the abundance of denitrification and carbohydrates-metabolism genes, mainly encoded by Proteobacteria.