THE NATURE OF INTERACTION BETWEEN IMMOBILIZED NITRIFICATION AND DENITRIFICATION BACTERIA

In this work, we pursue the investigation of a nitrogen removal system , which utilizes coupled reaction of nitrification and denitrification in a mixed immobilized cell culture. A systematic comparison of the c oupled nitrification-denitrification system with the nitrification pro cess is performed and the interaction between the populations is discu ssed. The experiments have been performed in sequencing batch reactors loaded with alginate- or agarose-immobilized cells. Measurements of a mmonium, nitrate, and nitrite concentrations have demonstrated that th e nitrification rates are higher in the mixed-culture system than in t he nitrification process. No build-up of nitrates or nitrites in the m ixed-culture system have been observed. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Sc ience B.V.