Application of a novel strain Corynebacterium pollutisoli SPH6 to improve nitrogen removal in an anaerobic/aerobic-moving bed biofilm reactor (A/O-MBBR)

A novel bacterium Corynebacterium pollutisoli SPH6 was added in A/O-MBBR system to explore its potential in nitrogen removal. Sodium acetate was found to be its favorable carbon sources compared to glucose, sucrose and methanol. Response surface methodology analysis revealed that SPH6 has the maximum specific degradation rate of total nitrogen (4.9302 mg N/(mg·cells·h−1)) with the temperature of 30.5 °C, pH of 7.97, inoculation ratio of 7.73% and the ratio of chemical oxygen demand and total nitrogen (COD/TN) of 7.77. The inoculation of SPH6 in A/O-MBBR demonstrated that the strain SPH6 could substantially improve the TN removal efficiency with 20% averagely. The results of high-throughput sequencing showed that the inoculation of SPH6 would essentially improve the microbial community involving nitrogen removal genus such as Hydrogenophaga, Desulfuromonas, and Desulfomicrobium. This study is of importance in providing microbial sources for bioaugmentation in nitrogen removal of wastewater treatment.