Purification of high ammonia wastewater in a biofilm airlift loop bioreactor with microbial communities analysis.

A 70 m(3) gas-liquid-solid three-phase flow airlift loop bioreactor, in which biofilm attached on granular active carbon carriers, was used for purification of the high ammonia wastewater from bioethanol production. Under the optimum operating conditions, COD and NH4 (+)-N average removal rate of 89.0 and 98.6 % were obtained at hydraulic retention time of 10 h. Scanning electron microscopy was applied for observation of the biofilm formation. High contaminants removal efficiency was achieved by holding high biomass concentration in the reactor due to the attached biofilm over the carriers. The 16S rRNA gene clone library analysis indicated that 68.6 % of the clones were affiliated with the two phyla Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria, and residual clones clustered with various sequences from uncultured bacteria. The presence of various anoxic/anaerobic bacteria indicated that the oxygen gradient inside the biofilm could provide appropriate micro-environment for nitrogen removal through simultaneous nitrification and denitrification.