• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.55-63
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• 1996

Nitrification reaction consists of two reactions: nitritification which oxidizes ammonia nitrogen to nitrite nitrogen and nitratification which oxidizes nitrite nitrogen to nitrate nitrogen. Each reaction is carried out by Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter, respectively. The effective maximum growth rates for both bacteria have to be determined to design aeration tank whenever the aeration tanks have to nitrify ammonia nitrogen in influent. And these values are very important to use mathematical models such as IAWPRC model to simulate nitrification in activated sludge. There are several methods to determine these valves, however, the Fed-Batch experiments can determine these values within 72 hours. In this study, the mathematical equations and experimental procedures for Fed-Batch test are presented. Also, the experimental data and reported values are compared. The estimated mean values of maximum specific growth rates for Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter are $0.5010day^{-1}$ and $0.6704day^{-1}$, respectively.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.772-779
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• 2005

Ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) were enriched by repeating fed-batch cultivations in an AOB-selective medium of activated sludges from a domestic wastewater treatment plant. Enriched culture showed strong capabilities of ammonia oxidation [0.810 mg $NH_4^+$-N/mg mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS)$\cdot$day] as well as $NO_x^-$-N production (0.617 mg $NO_x^-$-N/ mg MLSS$\cdot$day). Degree of enrichment was examined through fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) analyses using an AOB-specific Cy3-labeled oligonucleotide probe (NSOl90) and terminal-restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analyses. FISH analyses confirmed that the fraction of AOB among 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI)-stained cells increased from about less than $0.001\%$ to approximately $42\%$ after enrichment of AOB, and T-RFLP analyses showed that bacterial community became simpler as enrichment was continued. When the enriched culture of AOB was added (150 mg/l as dry suspended solid) to the normal activated sludge (3,000 mg/l as dry suspended solid), nitrification efficiencies were improved from 0.020 mg $NO_x^-$-N/mg MLSS$\cdot$day to 0.041 mg $NO_x^-$-N/mg MLSS$\cdot$day in a synthetic wastewater and also from 0.0007 mg $NO_x^-$-N/mg MLSS$\cdot$day to 0.0918 mg $NO_x^-$-N/mg MLSS$\cdot$day in a real domestic wastewater. Therefore, it is expected that this enrichment method could be used for improving efficiency of nitrification in wastewater treatment plants.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.96-108
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• 2018

Large efforts have recently been made on research and development of sustainable and energy-efficient short-cut nitrogen removal processes owing to strong attention to the energy neutral/positive wastewater treatment system. Anaerobic ammonium oxidizing bacteria (anammox bacteria) have been highlighted since 1990's due to their unique advantages including 60% less energy consumption, nearly 100% reduction for carbon source requirement, and 80% less sludge production. Side-stream short-cut nitrogen removal using anammox bacteria and partial nitritation anammox (PN/A) has been well established, whereas substantial challenges remain to be addressed mainly due to undesired main-stream conditions for anammox bacteria. These include low temperature, low concentrations of ammonia, nitrite, free ammonia, free nitrous acid or a combination of those. In addition, an anammox side-stream nitrogen management is insufficient to reduce overall energy consumption for energy-neutral or energy positive water resource recovery facility (WRRF) and at the same time to comply with nitrogen discharge regulation. This implies the development of the successful main-stream anammox based technology will accelerate a conversion of current wastewater treatment plants to sustainable water and energy recovery facility. This study discusses the status of the research, key mechanisms & interactions of the protagonists in the main-stream PN/A, and control parameters and major challenges in process development.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.377-382
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• 2013

Enriching anammox bacteria (AMX) in a lab-scale granular sequencing batch reactor using local digester centrate, we observed the significant enrichment of the filamentous-like bacterial population. These bacteria were revealed as novel bacterial species (termed CHL) belonging to Chlorobi/Bacteroidetes phyla via Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis (DGGE). Further, niche differentiation of AMX and CHL quantification was observed in granule and filament biomass, suggesting AMX was dominant in the granule and CHL was dominant in the filament. Therefore, it was confirmed the structural role of CHL was indeed to aid the granule formation of the AMX. In parallel, the physiological role of CHL was suspected to degrade biopolymers in the digester centrate using nitrate as an electron acceptor.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.14 no.9
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• pp.811-815
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• 2005

The activated sludge from the aeration basin of the Su-yeong municipal wastewater treatment plant which has operated by a standard activated sludge process in Busan, Korea was investigated during April 2004 and January 2005 with several bio-indicators. The number of bacteria and fungi per gram of dry weight of MLSS were estimated to be $3.1\times10^6\sim1.5\times10^8\;and\;l.1\times10^3\sim1.1\times10^5$ colony forming units, respectively, by the plate agar method. By cultivation-independent methods, such as 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole stain and fluorescence in situ hybridization, the ratio of eubacteria to the entire biomass was evaluated by more than $80\%$ (v/v). The ratio of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria to the total eubacteria was detennined to be $7.0\sim9.8\%\;and\;3.3\sim6.2\%$ without heavy variation in spite of a period of relatively low temperature in the basin. It would be expected that the nitrification would occur or at least co-exist throughout the year in the sludge of many municipal WWTP with influents that contain the sufficient nitrogen sources although the WWTP does not have any specialized processes for the removal of nitrogen.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.797-805
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• 2012

Contribution of immobilized media with bacteria to the odor removal was evaluated in a lab scale bio-filter compared to that with sponge or ceramic media without the immobilized bacteria. Candida tropicalis for volatile organic compounds and ammonium oxidizing bacteria (AOB) for inorganic compounds were used as seeds in lab-scale bio-reactors. Three different type of media in the bio-reactors that immobilized bioreactor (IBR), sponge bioreactor (SBR), and ceramic bioreactor (CBR) were examined, respectively. An empty bed contact time (EBCT) of the bio-filters was fixed as 60 seconds, and the inlet concentration of toluene was changed from 20 ppm to 200 ppm to observe the removal efficiency depending on the concentrations. As a result, the maximum elimination capacities of IBR, SBR, and CBR were 166 $g/m^3/hr$, 138 $g/m^3/hr$, and 138 $g/m^3/hr$, respectively. In addition, toluene as an organic compound and ammonia as an inorganic compound were applied together with different inlet concentrations varied from 80 ppm to 250 ppm of toluene and from 2.5 ppm to 40 ppm of ammonia. The toluene maximum elimination capacities in IBR, SBR, and CBR were 97.4 $g/m^3/hr$, 59.5 $g/m^3/hr$, and 81.9 $g/m^3/hr$, respectively. The ammonia maximum elimination capacities were reached as 7.2 $g/m^3/hr$ in IBR, 6.6 $g/m^3/hr$ in SBR, and 7.0 $g/m^3/hr$ in CBR.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.35 no.3 s.99
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• pp.152-159
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• 2002

The seasonal variations of nitrifying bacterial population sampled from 3 sites in Moon-Chon reservoir were analyzed by in situ hybridization with fluorescently labeled rRNA-targeted oligonucleotide probes from August 2000 until July 2001. In addition, physico-chemical parameters such as temperature, pH, chi-a and DOC were measured to determine correlations between those factors and the size of nitrifying bacterial populations. Total bacterial numbers varied in the range of $0.8{\sim}1.5{\times}10^6\;cells/ml$ independent of sites and had the maximal values in March at all 3 stations. The ratio of eubacteria to total bacteria ranged from 44.9% to 79.5%, and the ratio of each nitrifying bacteria to eubacterial numbers reached only $1.0{\sim}7.4%$. The variations of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria ranged from $1.1{\times}10^4$ to $3.0{\times}10^4\;cells/ml$ without noticeable peak values whereas those of nitrite-oxidizing bacteria varied in $1.3{\sim}5.7{\times}10^4\;cells/ml$ with the increasing tendency in winter regardless of the sites. Moreover it was observed that the numbers of nitrite-oxidizing bacteria were higher than those of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria. Total bacterial numbers correlated with water temperature (r = 0.355, p<0.05) and DOC (r = 0.58G, p<0.01) positively whereas nitrite-oxidizing bacteria correlated with temperature (r = -0.416, p<0.05) and pH (r = -0.568, p = 0.001) negatively. In addition, DOC represented good correlations with eubacterial numbers (r = 0.448, p<0.01). These results indicate that temperature, DOC and pH might be one of the main factors affecting variations of bacterial populations in the aquatic ecosystem. It was also suggested that FISH method is a useful tool for detection of slow growing nitrifying bacteria.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.314-320
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• 2014

BACKGROUND: Run off from agricultural sites contaminates water bodies with nitrogen which is toxic and causes eutrophication when excessively accumulated. Hence, the interest in monitoring nitrogen toxicity in aquatic environment has been continuously increasing. METHODS AND RESULTS: To detect a real time toxicity of various nitrogen compounds, we applied biomonitoring method (biosensor) based on sulfur-oxidizing bacteria (SOB). The toxicity biomonitoring test was conducted in semi-continuous mode in a reactor filled with sulfur particles (2~4 mm diameter) under aerobic condition. Relative toxicity was simply determined by measuring the change in electrical conductivity (EC). Various nitrogenous compounds at different concentrations were evaluated as a potential toxic substance. Nitrite was found to be very toxic to SOB with a 90% inhibition even when the concentration as low as 3 mg/L. However, nitrate and ammonia have any inhibitory effect on SOB's activity. CONCLUSION: The biosensor based on SOB responded sensitively to nitrite even at substantially low concentrations. Therefore, it can be used as a reliable biological alarm system for rapid detection of contaminants due to its simplicity and sensitive nature.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.26-33
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• 2006

To understand the efficient process of biological nitrogen removal (BNR) system, the structure of bacterial communities in nitrification reactors was analyzed using PCR and terminal restriction fragment length poly morphism (I-RFLP) methods. In this study, we used an advanced treatment system with plotting media, Nutrient Removal Laboratory system, or the rumination type sequencing batch reactor (SBR) system. The terminal restriction fragments of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and other $\beta-proteobacteria$ were observed in all of three BNR systems. The nucleotide sequence analysis of terminal restriction fragments showed that Nitrosomonas and Nitrosolobus were major populations of AOB in SBR system, whereas uncultured $\beta-proteobacteria$ and Cardococcus australiensis were the predominant groups in other two BNR systems. Also the SBR system may be more efficient to enrich AOB. These results indicate that the different structure of bacterial community may be developed depending on the wastewater treatment systems, although the same influent is used.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.920-926
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• 2007

The upflow Biobead$^{(R)}$ process, one of biological aerated filters (BAF), which was used commercially, invented for removal of organic materials and nitrification. This process was modified to enhance the ability of denitrification through the induction of pre-anoxic tank. In this research, we investigated the effects of hydraulic retention time (HRT) and backwashing period in aerobic tank. The characteristics of nitrifying bacteria, which are composed of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB), also investigated using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). Even though the HRT was shortened, the efficiency of nitrification was not decreased when the organic loading rate and ammonium-nitrogen loading rate were $2.10kg/m^3/day$ and $0.25kg/m^3/day$, respectively. And then the distribution ratios of AOB and NOB showed the similar patterns. However, when the backwashing period was lengthened from 12 hours to 24 hours in aerobic 1 tank, the nitrification efficiency was decreased to 63.9% from 89.2%. The results of FISH explained that this decrease of nitrification efficiency was caused by the decrease of distribution ratio of AOB in aerobic 1 tank. The nitrification efficiencies of aerobic 1 and aerobic 2 tank were increased when the backwashing period was lengthened because of relative high distribution ratios of nitrifying bacteria.