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Qualitative and quantitative spectrometric evaluation of soluble microbial products formation in aerobic granular sludge system treating nitrate wastewater

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Abstract

In present study, the characteristics of soluble microbial products (SMP) were evaluated in aerobic granular sludge system during denitrification process under different chemical oxygen demand/nitrogen (C/N) ratios. Batch experiment showed that the effluent nitrate (NO3−–N) concentration were 15.24 ± 1.83 and 1.72 ± 1.53 mg/L at C/N ratio of 1 and 6, respectively. For the release of SMP, the protein (PN) and polysaccharide contents increased from 1.23 ± 0.38 and 7.46 ± 1.13 mg/L to 1.80 ± 0.76 and 10.53 ± 1.24 mg/L with increasing C/N ratios, respectively. Excitation–emission matrix identified four peaks in SMP, including aromatic PN-like, tryptophan PN-like, fulvic acid-like and humic acid-like substances. Fluorescence regional integration suggested that biodegradable PN-like substances occupied the percentage between 53.0 and 61.7% in SMP. Synchronous fluorescence spectra coupled with two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy indicated that the release of SMP fractions in the early stage (0–150 min) changed in the following sequences: PN-like fraction > fulvic acid-like fraction.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21777056), Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR201702070162), and QW thanks the Special Foundation for Taishan Scholar Professorship of Shandong Province and UJN (No.ts20130937).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Resources and Environment, University of Jinan, Jinan, 250022, People’s Republic of China

    Heng Dong, Dong Wei, Jinglin Wei, Fei Han, Tao Yan & Bin Du

  2. Key Laboratory of Interfacial Reaction and Sensing Analysis in Universities of Shandong, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, University of Jinan, Jinan, 250022, People’s Republic of China

    Malik Saddam Khan & Qin Wei

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  1. Heng Dong
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  2. Dong Wei
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  3. Jinglin Wei
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Correspondence to Dong Wei or Bin Du.

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Dong, H., Wei, D., Wei, J. et al. Qualitative and quantitative spectrometric evaluation of soluble microbial products formation in aerobic granular sludge system treating nitrate wastewater. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 41, 841–850 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-018-1918-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-018-1918-z

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