Efficient nitrification and low N2O emission in a weakly acidic bioreactor at low dissolved oxygen levels are due to comammox.

Nitrification is an essential process for nutrient removal from wastewater and an important emission source of nitrous-oxide (N2O), which is a powerful greenhouse gas and a dominant ozone-depleting substance. In this study, nitrification and N2O emissions were tested in two weakly acidic (pH = 6.3-6.8) reactors: one with dissolved oxygen (DO) over 2.0 mg/L and the other with DO approximately 0.5 mg/L. Efficient nitrification was achieved in both reactors. Compared to the high-DO reactor, N2O emission in the low-DO reactor decreased slightly by 20% and had insignificant correlation with the fluctuations of DO (P = 0.935) and nitrite (P = 0.713), indicating that N2O might not be mainly produced via nitrifier denitrification. Based on qPCR, qFISH, functional gene amplicon and metagenome sequencing, it was found that complete ammonia oxidizer (comammox) Nitrospira significantly outnumbered canonical ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) in both weakly acidic reactors, especially in the low DO reactor with the comammox/AOB amoA gene ratio increasing from 6.6 to 17.1. Therefore, it was speculated that the enriched comammox was the primary cause for the slightly decreased N2O emission under long-term low DO in weakly acidic reactor. This study demonstrated that comammox Nitrospira can survive well under the weakly acidic and low-DO conditions, implying that achieving efficient nitrification with low N2O emission as well as low energy and alkalinity consumption is feasible for wastewater treatment.ImportanceNitrification in wastewater treatment is an important process for eutrophication control and an emission source for greenhouse gas of N2O. The nitrifying process is usually operated at a slightly alkaline pH and high DO (>2 mg/L) to ensure efficient nitrification. However, it consumes a large amount of energy and chemicals especially for wastewater without sufficient alkalinity. This manuscript demonstrated that comammox can adapt well to the weakly acidic and low-DO bioreactors, with a result of efficient nitrification and low N2O emission. These findings indicate that comammox are significant for sustainable wastewater treatment, which provides an opportunity to achieve efficient nitrification with low N2O production as well as low energy and chemical consumption simultaneously.