Effect of organic loading on phosphorus forms transformation and microbial community in continuous-flow A2/O process

Abstract

Abstract A continuous-flow Anaerobic/Anoxic/Oxic (A2/O) system was operated at different organic concentrations to systematically investigate the effect on the nutrient removal, secretion characteristics of extracellular polymer, phosphorus forms transformation and changes in functional flora in this system. The results showed that high organic loading was more conducive to promote the secretion of extracellular polymeric substance (EPS), the increase of polysaccharide content was more obvious compared with protein, the impact of organic loading on the components of loosely bound EPS (LB-EPS) was higher than that of tight-bound EPS (TB-EPS). Phosphorus in sludge floc mainly existed in the form of inorganic phosphorus (IP), and IP mainly existed in the form of apatite inorganic phosphorus (AP). High organic load showed higher phosphorus storage in EPS, and the phosphorus content in EPS was positively correlated with the content of EPS. Non-apatite phosphorus (NAIP) content played an important role in the extracellular dephosphorization. The abundance of Nitrosomonas and Nitrospira responsible for nitrification decreased with the increase in organic loading. The group of denitrifiers was large, and Azospira was the most abundant genus among them. Dechloromonas, Acinetobacter, Povalibacter, Chryseolinea and Pirellula were the functional genera closely associated with phosphorus removal.