Relationship of Species-Specific Filament Levels to Filamentous Bulking in Activated Sludge
Open Access
- 1 April 2004
- journal article
- Published by American Society for Microbiology in Applied and Environmental Microbiology
- Vol. 70 (4), 2420-2428
- https://doi.org/10.1128/aem.70.4.2420-2428.2004
Abstract
To examine the relationship between activated-sludge bulking and levels of specific filamentous bacteria, we developed a statistics-based quantification method for estimating the biomass levels of specific filaments using 16S rRNA-targeted fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) probes. The results of quantitative FISH for the filament Sphaerotilus natans were similar to the results of quantitative membrane hybridization in a sample from a full-scale wastewater treatment plant. Laboratory-scale reactors were operated under different flow conditions to develop bulking and nonbulking sludge and were bioaugmented with S. natans cells to stimulate bulking. Instead of S. natans , the filament Eikelboom type 1851 became dominant in the reactors. Levels of type 1851 filaments extending out of the flocs correlated strongly with the sludge volume index, and extended filament lengths of approximately 6 × 10 8 μm ml −1 resulted in bulking in laboratory-scale and full-scale activated-sludge samples. Quantitative FISH showed that high levels of filaments occurred inside the flocs in nonbulking sludge, supporting the “substrate diffusion limitation” hypothesis for bulking. The approach will allow the monitoring of incremental improvements in bulking control methods and the delineation of the operational conditions that lead to bulking due to specific filaments.Keywords
This publication has 21 references indexed in Scilit:
- Effect of feeding pattern and storage on the sludge settleability under aerobic conditionsWater Research, 2003
- Filamentous Chloroflexi (green non-sulfur bacteria) are abundant in wastewater treatment processes with biological nutrient removal c cThe EMBL accession numbers for the sequences reported in this paper are X84472 (strain SBR1029 16S rDNA), X84474 (strain SBR1031 16S rDNA), X84498 (strain SBR1064 16S rDNA), X84565 (strain SBR2022 16S rDNA), X84576 (strain SBR2037 16S rDNA) and X84607 (strain SBR2076 16S rDNA).Microbiology, 2002
- Phylogeny of the filamentous bacterium Eikelboom Type 1851, and design and application of a 16S rRNA targeted oligonucleotide probe for its fluorescence in situ identification in activated sludgeFEMS Microbiology Letters, 2002
- Role of filamentous microorganisms in activated sludge foaming: relationship of mycolata levels to foaming initiation and stabilityWater Research, 2001
- Modeling the competition between floc-forming and filamentous bacteria in activated sludge waste water treatment systems—I. Evaluation of mathematical models based on kinetic selection theoryWater Research, 2000
- BulkingPublished by Springer Science and Business Media LLC ,1998
- Development and Use of Fluorescent In Situ Hybridization Probes for the Detection and Identification of “Microthrix parvicella” in Activated SludgeSystematic and Applied Microbiology, 1997
- Identification and in situ Detection of Gram-negative Filamentous Bacteria in Activated SludgeSystematic and Applied Microbiology, 1994
- Phylogenetic Oligodeoxynucleotide Probes for the Major Subclasses of Proteobacteria: Problems and SolutionsSystematic and Applied Microbiology, 1992
- Control of activated sludge filamentous bulkingWater Research, 1985