Enrichment and biofilm formation of Anammox bacteria in a non-woven membrane reactor

An innovative reactor configuration for Anammox enrichment by connecting a non-woven membrane module with an anaerobic reactor was developed in this study. The Anammox non-woven membrane reactor (ANMR) exhibited high biomass retention ability through the formation of aggregates in the reactor and biofilm on the interior surface of the non-woven membrane. No fouling problems occurred on the membrane after the development of mature biofilms. After 8 months of operation, the nitrogen loading rate (NLR) and nitrogen removal rate (NRR) reached 1263 mg N/l/d and 1047.5 mg N/l/d, respectively, with a maximum specific ammonium consumption (SAC) of 51 nmol/mg protein/min. At steady state, the average ammonium and nitrite removal efficiencies were 90.9% and 95.0%, respectively. Morphological observation of Anammox aggregates and biofilm showed a high degree of compactness. Also, enrichment of Anammox bacteria was quantified by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis as 97.7%.