In their manuscript “Improved identification of primary biological aerosol particles using single particle mass spectrometry”, Zawadowicz et al. present a new classification method to distinguish single particles containing “biological” and “inorganic” phosphorus from their mass spectra. The algorithm is developed and tested using single particle mass spectra acquired in laboratory measurements...

An innovative static/oxic/anoxic (SOA) activated sludge process characterized by static phase as a substitute for conventional anaerobic stage was developed to enhance biological nutrient removal (BNR) with influent ammonia of 20 and 40 mg/L in R1 and R2 reactors, respectively. The results demonstrated that static phase could function as conventional anaerobic stage. In R1 lower influent ammoni...

Phosphorus (P) is the 11th most abundant element of the earth’s crust. Phosphorus (P) is an essential element for all living organisms. The world’s main source of P is phosphate (Pi) rock. It is a non-renewable resource. There is neither any alternative to P nor a synthetic way of creating it. P is involved in various basic biological functions, for instance as a structural element in nucleic a...

The Curiosity rover discovered fine-grained sedimentary rocks, which are inferred to represent an ancient lake and preserve evidence of an environment that would have been suited to support a martian biosphere founded on chemolithoautotrophy. This aqueous environment was characterized by neutral pH, low salinity, and variable redox states of both iron and sulfur species. Carbon, hydrogen, oxyge...

Astrid Oberson, Else K. Bünemann, Dennis K. Friesen, I.M. Rao, Paul C. Smithson, Benjamin L. Turner, and Emmanuel Frossard, Institute of Plant Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia International Center for the Improvement of Maize and Wheat (CIMMYT) and International Q1 Fertili...

The presence of suitable carbon sources for enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) plays a key role in phosphorus removal from wastewater in urban WWTP. For wastewaters with low volatile fatty acids (VFAs) content, an external carbon addition is necessary. As methanol is the most commonly external carbon source used for denitrification it could be a priori a promising alternative, but pr...

The enrichment of enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) sludge with Tetrasphaera was obtained for the first time using glutamate as sole carbon source. Two configurations were tested, an SBR with anaerobic/aerobic sequence and a continuous anaerobic/anoxic/aerobic (A/O) pilot plant. Better results and improved stability was obtained in the continuous A/O operation. Accumulibacter were a...

Activated sludge systems are designed and operated globally to remove phosphorus microbiologically, a process called enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR). Yet little is still known about the ecology of EBPR processes, the microbes involved, their functions there and the possible reasons why they often perform unreliably. The application of rRNA-based methods to analyze EBPR community s...

This study investigates, for the first time, the application of metabolic models incorporating polyphosphate accumulating organisms (PAOs) and glycogen accumulating organisms (GAOs) towards describing the biochemical transformations of full-scale enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) activated sludge from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). For this purpose, it was required to modify p...