Aerobic treatment of dairy wastewater in an industrial three-reactor plant: Effect of aeration regime on performances and on protozoan and bacterial communities

An industrial three-reactor plant treating 45 m3 d−1 of dairy wastewater was monitored to investigate the effect of different aeration regimes on performance efficiency and to find relationships with bacterial and protozoan communities in the activated sludge. During the study, the plant was maintained at six different “on/off” cycles of the blower (45/15, 15/15, 15/45, 30/30, 30/45 and 30/60 min), providing between 30.2 and 90.6 kg O2 d−1, and the main chemical/biochemical parameters (COD, BOD, NH4+, NO2−, NO3−, PO43−, etc.) were determined. When at least 45.4 kg O2 d−1 (30/45) were provided, COD removal efficiencies were always in the range 88–94% but decreased to about 70% under aeration regimes 15/45 and 30/60. Ammonium ion degradation performance was compromised only in the lowest aeration regime (15/45). Total number of protozoa and their species richness, and bacterial viable counts and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) profiles were used to characterize the microbiota of the activated sludge. Cell abundances and community structures of protozoa and bacteria were very similar in the three aerated reactors but changed with the aeration regimes. In particular, the 15/45 and 30/60 regimes led to low protozoan diversity with prevalence of flagellates of the genus Trepomonas at the expense of the mobile and sessile forms and, thus, to a less efficient activated sludge as indicated by Sludge Biotic Index values (3 and 4.5 for the two regimes, respectively). The structure of the bacterial community strongly changed when the aeration regimes varied, as indicated by the low similarity values between the DGGE profiles. On the contrary, number of viable bacteria and values of the biodiversity index remained stable throughout the whole experimentation. Taken together, the results of the present study clearly indicate that aeration regime variations strongly influence the structure of both protozoan and bacterial communities and, above all, that a high biodiversity among protozoan populations in the activated sludge is prerequisite for high performances in dairy wastewater treatment.

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► Aeration regimes affected dairy wastewater biotreatment efficiency and microbiota.
► The best performances were obtained at 30/45 min “on/off” cycle (45.4 kg O2 d−1).
► Low aeration regimes decreased protozoa biodiversity and changed community structure.
► Aeration regimes affected the bacterial community structure but not the richness.
► High biodiversity of protozoan population is fundamental for high plant performance.