Study of nitrifying microbial communities from activated sludges for landfill leachate treatment
During the last century, the ammonia levels released in the environment increased in an alarming manner due to many anthropogenic sources. Particularly, urbanization originated enormous quantities of municipal solid wastes that managed in landfills cause the production of the so-called leachate, a dark-brown and bad-smelling liquid waste containing very high concentrations of ammonia and organic compounds. The biological removal of nitrogen by the microbial community forming the activated sludge of wastewater treatment plants (WTP) remains the most widely used and somewhat the most low-cost and promising approach. Currently, WTPs have to treat huge amounts of leachate. The present research project investigates the structure of microbial communities of the activated sludge from WTPs in order to identify and select those microorganisms that can grow in leachate-based medium and are resistant to multiple ammonia stresses. Thus, our strategy involves changes of the composition of the native sludge population by enrichment with selected bacteria to create an optimized microorganism’s mixture with a high ammonia removal capacity. This “artificial sludge” could be used to improve the bioreactor performance. Recently, the most relevant findings of this study have been the object of a publication (Petrilli et al. 2023, https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms11020311).
Keywords - ENGLISH
Biological nitrogen removal, nitrification-denitrification, landfill leachate, activated
sludge, microbial community, metagenomics
Active participants in the research line (PI last author or *)
Rossana Petrilli; Attilio Fabbretti; Maurizio Falconi
External Collaborations
Ditta Eco Elpidiense (P.S. Elpidio, FM, Italy); Eco Control Laboratorio (Fermo, Italy)
Pillar
Environmental Sustainability
Macroareas in Environmental Sustainability
Environmental Microbiology and Molecular Ecology
Relevant research grants (national/international) funding specifically this Research Line
Convenzione Ecoelpidiense (150.000 euro); Dottorato di ricerca coofinanziato dalla ditta Eco Elpidiense (P. S. Elpidio, FM, Italy).
Email Address
maurizio.falconi@unicam.it
Link to Relevant Publications