From an operational and microbial ecology perspective, BNR wastewater treatment systems have complex requirements. Aerobic, anoxic, and anaerobic zones must be optimized for both ammonia oxidation, denitrification, and phosphorus uptake. In addition to monitoring redox potentials (ORP), D.O., OUR, and F/M, monitoring the slower growing but vital niche organisms helps with operations. Since the most population changes happen gradually in BNR systems, we decided to test microbial populations using Microbial Community Analysis (MCA) which is a total microbial census using 16s rRNA. With the 16s rRNA serving as a microbial barcode, full information on all microbes in the MLSS with relative frequency is produced to give information on microbial populations when the system is running well and when efficiency declines.
Key Organism Groups to Monitor
For ease or reading, the MCA findings are reported in a summary table.
Key Organism Groups to Monitor
- Ammonia Oxidizing Bacteria (AOB) & Nitrite Oxidizing Bacteria (NOB)
- Denitrifying bacteria
- Phosphorus Accumulating Organisms (PAO) and Glycogen Accumulating Organisms (GAO)
- Filamentous bacteria - filaments are favored by many of the conditions in BNR operations and should be monitored for overgrowth.
For ease or reading, the MCA findings are reported in a summary table.
We also include more data in a Sankey type chart that gives information on the organisms in the sample as you move from Kingdom (bacteria) to the more specific Genus level of ID. This chart involves more interpretation but is a much deeper look into population changes over time. Below is a rotated chart for use in this post, it is much easier to read in the spreadsheet output!
While the output looks complex, it has proven easy to use by everyone in the facilities. By directly measuring populations, MCA identifies drifting populations and the genera associated with best operations.
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