• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.22 no.11
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• pp.1969-1976
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• 2000

It is a time consuming work to identify the inhibition of unknown chemicals or industrial wastewater. Thus it is needed to establish a fast assay tool for finding a toxicant source. Biomass activity and ammonia inhibition were measured by DHAINT method. Ammonia inhibition tests were comprised of total ammonia inhibition and free ammonia inhibition. Those inhibitions were carried out by nitrifier and heterotroph each other with nitrifier inhibitor. The ammonia inhibition was proportional to an amount of total ammonia and pH increase. It meaned that a free ammonia played a key role for ammonia inhibition. however both total ammonia and free ammonia should be considered for an accurate assay of the ammonia inhibition. Nitrifier was more sensitive than heterotroph when the ammonia concentration above 3.000mg/L.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.125-130
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• 2008

Free ammonia ($NH_3$-N) inhibition of nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) has been widely studied for partial nitrification (or nitrite accumulation) and denitrification via nitrite ($NO_2^-$-N) as a low-cost treatment of ammonium containing wastewater. The literature on $NH_3$-N inhibition of NOB, however, shows disagreement about the threshold $NH_3$-N concentration and its degree of inhibition. In order to clarify the confusion, a simple and cheap respirometric method was devised to investigate the effect of free ammonia inhibition of NOB. Sludge samples from an autotrophic nitrifying reactor were exposed to various $NH_3$-N concentrations to measure the maximum specific nitrite oxidation rate ($\hat{K}_{NO}$) using a respirometer. NOB biomass was estimated from the yield values in the literature. Free ammonia inhibition of nitrite oxidizing bacteria was reversible and the specific nitrite oxidation rate ($K_{NO}$) decreased from 0.141 to 0.116, 0.100, 0.097 and 0.081 mg $NO_2^-$-N/mg NOB h, respectively, as the $NH_3$-N concentration increased from 0.0 to 1.0, 4.1, 9.7 and 22.9 mg/L. A nonlinear regression based on the noncompetitive inhibition mode gave an estimate of the Inhibition concentration ($K_I$) of free ammonia to be 21.3 mg $NH_3$-N/L. Previous studies gave $\hat{K}_{NO}$ of Nitrobacter and Nitrospira as 0.120 and 0.032 mg/mg VSS h. The free ammonia concentration which inhibits Nitrobacter was $30{\sim}50\;mg$ $NH_3$-N/L and Nitrospira was inhibited at $0.04{\sim}0.08\;mg$ $NH_3$-N/L. The results support the fact that Nitrobacter is the dominant NOB in the reactor. The variations in the reported values of free ammonia inhibition may be due to the different species of nitrite oxidizers present in the reactors. The respirometric method provides rapid and reliable analysis of the behavior and community of the nitrite oxidizing bacteria.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.715-723
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• 2016

This study investigated the effect of high concentration of free ammonia on microalgal growth and substrate removal by applying real wastewater nitrogen ratio. To test of this, the conditions of free ammonia 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 mg-N/L are compared. After 3 days of incubation, algal growth of Chlorella vulgaris and carbon removal rate are respectively lower in the reactors of FA 12, 15 mg-N/L compared to the others. This indicates that the high concentration of free ammonia, in this case, above 12 mg-N/L, has negative effect on algal growth and metabolic activity. Also, high concentration of free ammonia causes the proton imbalance, ammonium accumulation in algae and has toxicity for these reasons. So, we have to consider free ammonia in applying the microalgae to wastewater treatment system by the way of diluting wastewater or controlling pH and temperature.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.475-478
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• 2000

For an integrated nitrification-denitrification process, nitrite formation in the aerobic stage leads to big savings. Dissolved oxygen concentration, temperature, pH and free ammonia concentration have been meet for nitrite accumulation. Also their effects over the ammonia oxidizers and nitrite oxidizers have been studied. Dissolved oxygen limitation and free ammonia inhibition led to slow nitrification and nitrite build up. In this study batch kinetics of ammonium and nitrite oxidations were performed with free ammonia accumulated nitrifiers. From the results it is likely the nitrite oxidizers are inhibited by oxygen limitation rather than free ammonia.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.993-997
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• 2007

The upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor can be effective for treating simple organic compounds containing high concentration of ammonia nitrogen. The chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency was about 80% at ammonia nitrogen concentration up to 6,000 mg-N/L. This result also showed that it would be possible to treat propionate effectively at free ammonia nitrogen concentration up to 724 mg-N/L if sufficient time was allowed for adaptation. However the specific methanogenic activity (SMA) of granule was lower than that of granule in the reactor with lower ammonia nitrogen concentration. At 8,000 mg-N/L, the inhibition of high ammonia concentration was observed with evidence of increase of the volatile suspended solids (VSS) concentration in the effluent. It might be ascribed to the decrease in the content of extracellular polymer (ECP), which resulted to the sloughing off of obligated proton-reducing acetogens and heterogenotrophic methanogens from the exterior of granular sludge. This caused a great portion of the finely sludge to be easily washed out. Therefore, failure to maintain the balance between these two groups of microorganism cause accumulation of the hydrogen partial pressure in the reactor, which could have inhibited the growth of acetate utilizing methanogens.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.383-390
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• 2008

Recently, the interests on economical nitrogen removal from wastewater are growing. As a method of the novel nitrogen removal technology, nitrogen removal via nitrite pathway by selective inhibition of free ammonia and free nitrous acid on nitrite oxidizing bacteria have been intensively studied. The inhibition effects of free ammonia and free nitrous acid are low when domestic wastewater is used, however, because of its relatively lower nitrogen concentration than the wastewater from industry and landfill, etc. In this study, a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) is proposed for nitrogen removal to investigate the effect of the low nitrogen concentration on nitrite accumulation. Nitrification efficiency reached almost 100% during the aerobic cycle and the maximum specific nitrification rate ($V_{max,nit}$) reached $17.8mg\;NH_4{^+}-N/g\;MLVSS{\bullet}h$. During the anoxic cycle, average denitrification efficiency reached 87% and the maximum specific denitrification rate ($V_{max,den}$) reached $9.8mg\;NO_3{^-}-N/g\;MLVSS{\bullet}h$. From the analysis the main reason of nitrite accumulation in the SBR was free nitrous acid rather than free ammonia. Nitrite accumulation increased with the decrease of organic content in the wastewater and the mechanism is not well understood yet. From the result of fluorescent in situ hybridization, the distribution of nitrite oxidizing bacteria was in equilibrium with ammonium oxidizing bacteria when nitrite accumulation did not occur.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.981-987
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• 2000

Upflow anaerobic sludge blanket(UASB) reactor was operated for treating swine wastewater containing high ammonia nitrogen to assess their performance and toxicity of free ammonia concentration. In the reactor, chemical oxygen demand(COD) removed about 70% at $2.6kgCOD/m^3.day$ of organic loading rate(OLR) and 3 days of hydraulic retention time (HRT), while it was decreased when OLR and HRT was maintained $7kg\;COD/m^3.day$ and 2 days, respectively. Also UASB reactor was evaluated the activity of methane producing bacteria(MPB) according to change of free ammonia concentrations, MPB activity of applied sludge in the 500 and $1000mg-N/{\ell}$ of free ammonia concentration was inhibited by 4% and 40%, respectively. This clearly showed that free ammonia concentration less than $500mg-N/{\ell}$ showed no inhibition to MPB in anaerobic treatment of organics, UASB reactor was stabilized easily less than $1000mgVSS/{\ell}$ due to degradation of organic solids by the high activities of anaerobes.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.376-381
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• 2019

In this study, a poly(vinyl) alcohol/sodium alginate (PVA/SA) mixture was used to fabricate core-shell structured gel beads for autotrophic single-stage nitrogen removal (ASNR) using aerobic and anaerobic ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AAOB and AnAOB, respectively). For stable ASNR process, the mechanical strength and oxygen penetration depth of the shell layer entrapping the AAOB are critical properties. The shell layer was constructed by an interfacial gelling reaction yielding thickness in the range of 2.01-3.63 mm, and a high PVA concentration of 12.5% resulted in the best mechanical strength of the shell layer. It was found that oxygen penetrated the shell layer at different depths depending on the PVA concentration, oxygen concentration in the bulk phase, and free ammonia concentration. The oxygen penetration depth was around $1,000{\mu}m$ when 8.0 mg/L dissolved oxygen was supplied from the bulk phase. This study reveals that the shell layer effectively protects the AnAOB from oxygen inhibition under the aerobic conditions because of the respiratory activity of the AAOB.

• Geosystem Engineering
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.243-250
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• 2018

This study investigated nitrite ($NO_2{^-}$) accumulation due to FA (Free Ammonia: $NH_3$) inhibition in an anaerobic-aerobic-anoxic (AOA) process reactor to mainly treat wastewater containing 302-610 mg/L of $NH_3/NH_4{^+}-N$. Based on an experimental operation focusing on the nitrification, it was observed that $NO_2{^-}$ was accumulated in the aerobic nitrification zone as pH increased, due to inhibition of $NO_2{^-}$ conversion to $NO_3{^-}$ by FA. This result implied FA inhibition to NOB ($NO_2{^-}$-Oxidizing Bacteria) for converting $NO_2{^-}$ to $NO_3{^-}$. The objective of this study is to develop a feasible monitoring procedure for early detection of the FA inhibition toward $NO_2{^-}$ accumulation and poor nitrification. Thus, in order to rapidly assess FA concentrations, an $NH_3$ probe was utilized to measure $NH_3$ concentrations together with applying a simple model prediction using the measured $NH_4{^+}$ concentrations, the Henry's law constant of $NH_3$ and measured pH. The predictive model $NH_3$ levels were verified by a good correlation (89%) with the corresponding measured data, but the model prediction underestimated FA concentrations at less than 7.4 and a little overestimated at pH above 7.5. Interestingly, accumulated $NO_2{^-}$ levels were roughly correlated with FA levels that were observed at delayed time points. This reflects the detected FA levels can be good indicators of $NO_2{^-}$ levels with some delayed time. $NO_2{^-}$ accumulation started at measured FA concentrations of higher than approximately 3 mg/L and ceased below that FA level.

• Journal of Integrative Natural Science
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.103-112
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• 2011

This study was carried out on 4 batch reactors to determine the specific ammonium oxidizing rate (SAOR), specific nitrate forming rate (SNFR) and inhibitory degree of nitrifying activities with saline concentrations. Under salt free condition ammonia was consumed during the reaction period within 200 min. When the salt level increased to 10, 20 and 30 g $NaClL^{-1}$ in reactor, ammonia depletion took 250, 300 and above 350 min, respectively. During concentration above 10 g $NaClL^{-1}$, there was nitrite accumulation. Also, at 30 g $NaClL^{-1}$ ammonia did not depleted and $NO_2{^-}$-N accumulated until the final reaction. Nitrate formation rates decreased with increasing salt concentration. SAOR and SNFR showed a decreasing trend as salinity concentrations were increased. The SAOR was reduced from 0.2 to 0.08 mg $NH_4{^+}$-N $g^{-1}VSS\;day^{-1}$ as the salt concentration increased from 0 to 30 g $NaClL^{-1}$. Similarly, the SNFR decreased from 0.26 kg $NO_3{^-}$-N $kg^{-1}VSS\;day^{-1}$ at saline free to 0.1 kg $NO_3{^-}$-N $kg^{-1}VSS\;day^{-1}$ at saline 30 g L-1. A severe inhibition of nitrifiers activity was observed at increased salt concentrations. The inhibition ratio of specific ammonium oxidation rates were 17, 47 and 60% on the reactor of 10, 20 and 30 g $NaClL^{-1}$ added, respectively. The inhibition ratio of specific nitrate forming rates also were inhibited 30, 53 and 62% on the reactor of 10, 20 and 30 g $NaClL^{-1}$ added, respectively. As the salinity concentrations increased from 0 to 30 mg $NaClL^{-1}$, the average MLSS concentration increased from 1,245 to 1,735 $mgL^{-1}$. The SS concentration of supernatant in reactor which settled about 30 minutes was not severely difference between concentration of salt free reactor and one of those high salt contained reactors.