GOALI: Omics- and metabolically-informed out-selection of Nitrospira spp. and Comammox bacteria from energy efficient engineered nitrogen removal processes

Columbia University, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

PI Name: Kartik Chandran Proposal Number: 1706726 The wastewater treatment sector is in the midst of a renaissance to move towards embedding energy and resource efficiency in the pursuit of clean water and even becoming energy positive, i.e., producing energy from the water treatment process. The focus of this project is to develop a fundamental understanding of the bacterial populations and their activities in energy-efficient engineered wastewater treatment systems and use this understanding to facilitate full-scale implementation of these systems at water utilities. Potential benefits of this project include the possibility of widespread adoption of enhanced wastewater treatment technologies and approaches in utilities traditionally limited by energy availability or energy costs. This project addresses the theme "reducing nitrogenous pollution in an environmentally sustainable fashion," one of the grand engineering challenges defined by the National Academy of Engineering. Technology developed from this project is expected to contribute significantly to the nitrogen removal program of Washington, D.C. and other utilities in the US. The PIs will develop educational modules to introduce environmental microbiology research to high-school students from minority schools in New York City. The PIs plan to help bridge the gap between fundamental research and practical application of this new paradigm in energy-efficient clean water by developing and implementing educational modules directed at water quality professionals. The application of the anammox process for the treatment of sewage or dilute wastewater (mainstream deammonification) holds immense potential for scaling up the energy-savings and reduced overall footprint typically associated with anammox-based treatment of anaerobic digestion centrate or filtrate (sidestreams). Nevertheless, the typical operational strategies associated with selecting for aerobic and anaerobic ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB and AMX, respectively) and concurrently selecting against nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB) in sidestream systems do not apply to mainstream deammonification systems. The PIs plan to develop a science-based understanding of the microbial ecology, metabolism, biokinetics, and thermodynamics of NOB in mainstream deammonification processes. Based on this fundamental work, the PIs plan to develop metabolic and activated sludge models and employ these models for the optimization of lab-, pilot- and full-scale mainstream deammonification processes in New York City, Washington, D.C. and Odense, Denmark. This project represents one of the first systematic attempts at full-scale and pilot-scale implementation of NOB-outselection in the US supported by a fundamental-applied research continuum. Using novel molecular techniques such as next generation sequencing, systems biology (-omics) and conventional engineering based approaches, the PIs plan to model NOB ecology, metabolism and thermodynamics. The analytical and modeling effort will lead to a better understanding of the specific mechanisms by which to engineer stable mainstream deammonification microbial communities and processes. Ultimately, the results of this project can help to promote widespread adaptation of mainstream deammonification for biological nitrogen removal (BNR), based on a mechanistic understanding of the constituent linked microbial and engineering systems.