TY - JOUR
T1 - Effect of high ammonia loads emitted from poultry-manure digestion on nitrification activity and nitrifier-community structure in a compost biofilter
AU - Posmanik, Roy
AU - Gross, Amit
AU - Nejidat, Ali
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was partly funded by the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture and the Rosenzweig Coopersmith Foundation . We gratefully acknowledge Dr. Tali Brunner, Dr. Regina Goldin-Tzirkin, Natalia Bondarenko, Dr. Yonatan Sher and Uri Ben-Yosef for their assistance with the laboratory analyses.
PY - 2014/1/1
Y1 - 2014/1/1
N2 - Ammonia emissions from poultry-manure disposal and agricultural applications pose a global environmental challenge that requires the development of proper management practices. Recently, a scheme comprised of a compost-based biofilter for the treatment of high loads of ammonia emitted from poultry-manure digestion (up to 500gNH3m-3biofilterday-1) was suggested. In this study, we hypothesized that the high ammonia-adsorption capacity of the compost matrix creates an ammonia gradient along the biofilter that is occupied by adapted nitrifying communities, thus allowing high nitrification rates and ammonia removal. Accordingly, pilot-scale compost biofilters were constructed and batch-fed with ammonia emitted from digested poultry manure for over a year. The operation cycle included a nitrate washing step from the biofilter. Compost samples withdrawn at 20, 40 and 60cm distance from the gas inlet were chemically characterized and analyzed for nitrification activity and nitrifier abundance and diversity. The number of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) was 0.5-1 order of magnitude lower in the bottom section (0-20cm), which was dominated by Nitrosomonas species, compared to the top layers which were occupied by a mixed Nitrosomonas and Nitrosospira population. In addition, ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) were homogeneously distributed along the biofilter profile and their numbers were at least one order of magnitude higher than those of the AOB. Significantly lower potential nitrification activity was detected in the bottom layer, and correlated with AOB abundance. Together, the results indicate that with proper operation of compost biofilters, suitable communities of nitrifying microorganisms that are able to cope with a wide range of ammonia concentrations, sourced from manure digestion, will develop.
AB - Ammonia emissions from poultry-manure disposal and agricultural applications pose a global environmental challenge that requires the development of proper management practices. Recently, a scheme comprised of a compost-based biofilter for the treatment of high loads of ammonia emitted from poultry-manure digestion (up to 500gNH3m-3biofilterday-1) was suggested. In this study, we hypothesized that the high ammonia-adsorption capacity of the compost matrix creates an ammonia gradient along the biofilter that is occupied by adapted nitrifying communities, thus allowing high nitrification rates and ammonia removal. Accordingly, pilot-scale compost biofilters were constructed and batch-fed with ammonia emitted from digested poultry manure for over a year. The operation cycle included a nitrate washing step from the biofilter. Compost samples withdrawn at 20, 40 and 60cm distance from the gas inlet were chemically characterized and analyzed for nitrification activity and nitrifier abundance and diversity. The number of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) was 0.5-1 order of magnitude lower in the bottom section (0-20cm), which was dominated by Nitrosomonas species, compared to the top layers which were occupied by a mixed Nitrosomonas and Nitrosospira population. In addition, ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) were homogeneously distributed along the biofilter profile and their numbers were at least one order of magnitude higher than those of the AOB. Significantly lower potential nitrification activity was detected in the bottom layer, and correlated with AOB abundance. Together, the results indicate that with proper operation of compost biofilters, suitable communities of nitrifying microorganisms that are able to cope with a wide range of ammonia concentrations, sourced from manure digestion, will develop.
KW - Ammonia biofiltration
KW - Ammonia-oxidizing archaea
KW - Ammonia-oxidizing bacteria
KW - Nitrification
KW - Nitrite-oxidizing bacteria
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84888188372&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ecoleng.2013.10.033
DO - 10.1016/j.ecoleng.2013.10.033
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84888188372
SN - 0925-8574
VL - 62
SP - 140
EP - 147
JO - Ecological Engineering
JF - Ecological Engineering
ER -