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The effects of carbon/phosphorus ratio on polyphosphate- and glycogen-accumulating organisms in aerobic granular sludge

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Abstract

A laboratory-scale granular sequencing batch reactor, fed with acetate, was operated at two different ratios of chemical oxygen demand to phosphorus—15:1 and 100:1. Smaller aerobic granules, but with better settleability, were obtained at the lower ratio. High ratio of phosphorus release to uptake of dissolved organic carbon (0.42 mol/mol) coincided with high percentage of polyphosphate-accumulating organisms (up to 70 % of all bacteria) and implied high metabolic activity of these bacteria. Polyphosphate-accumulating organisms belonged mainly to Accumulibacter and Tetrasphaera (46 and 23 %, respectively). Despite significant abundance, Tetrasphaera-related microorganisms were not detected by oligoprobes Actino-221 and Actino-658, but by broader oligoprobes Tet2-892 and Tet3-654. Low abundance (1 %) of Halomonas phosphatis indicated a minor role of these bacteria in the laboratory-scale reactor fed with synthetic wastewater. When the ratio of chemical oxygen demand to phosphorus was increased to 100:1, deterioration of settling properties was observed, caused by growth of filamentous organisms from Thiothrix/021N group. The higher ratio favoured Competibacter and was selected against all groups of polyphosphate-accumulating organisms. However, a significant percentage (10 %) of polyphosphate-accumulating organisms in the granular sludge with concomitant low ratio of phosphorus release to the uptake of dissolved organic carbon (0.01 mol/mol) suggested shift in the overall population metabolism. Under phosphorus limitation in wastewater, polyphosphate-accumulating organisms no longer synthesized poly-P and behaved as glycogen-accumulating organisms.

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Acknowledgments

The authors recognize the excellent technical assistance of E. Łukomska, D. Rosińska, J. Klimkiewicz and Ł. Juraszek.

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  1. Faculty of Environmental Engineering, Department of Biology, Warsaw University of Technology, 00-653, Warsaw, Poland

    A. Muszyński & A. Miłobędzka

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  1. A. Muszyński
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  2. A. Miłobędzka
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Correspondence to A. Muszyński.

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Muszyński, A., Miłobędzka, A. The effects of carbon/phosphorus ratio on polyphosphate- and glycogen-accumulating organisms in aerobic granular sludge. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 12, 3053–3060 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-015-0828-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-015-0828-8

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