Effect of inorganic carbon limitation on the nitrogen removal performance of the single-stage reactor containing anammox and nitritation gel carriers

Herein, the effect of inorganic carbon (IC) limitation on the nitrogen removal performance of the single-stage reactor containing nitritation and anammox gel carriers was investigated. As a result of a continuous feeding test, the effluent ammonium concentration increased as the IC concentration decreased, indicating the deterioration of nitritation activity, not anammox. Furthermore, the sensitivity of IC to anammox and nitritation activity was investigated in anammox and nitritation reactors, respectively. Consequently, the relationship between the effluent IC concentration and nitritation rate was well described using the Michaelis–Menten equation. The apparent K_m value of nitritation was calculated as 4.4 mg-C L⁻¹. In anammox reactor, it was calculated as 1.7 mg-C L⁻¹. These results revealed that the affinity of nitritation gel carriers to IC was lower than that of anammox, supporting that nitritation activity was easily deactivated by decrease in the IC concentration rather than anammox. Microbial community analysis revealed that Nitrosomonas europaea and Candidatus Jettenia asiatica were the dominant species of ammonium-oxidizing and anammox bacteria.