Isolation and Nitrogen Removal Characteristics of an Aerobic Heterotrophic Nitrifying-Denitrifying Bacterium, Klebsiella sp. TN-10.

Nitrogen removal by microorganisms has attracted increasing attention in wastewater treatment. In the present study, a heterotrophic nitrification bacterium was isolated from tannery wastewater and identified as Klebsiella sp. TN-10 based on phenotypic and phylogenetic characteristics. The optimal conditions for cell growth and nitrogen removal were investigated, and the results showed that the greatest ammonium removal rate and maximum biomass were achieved by using sodium pyruvate (7 g/L) as carbon source, C/N 12, pH 7, and temperature 30 °C. Under optimal conditions, the removal rate of ammonia nitrogen reached 96%. Besides, the growth characteristic and the ability of utilizing nitrate and nitrite were investigated. The results demonstrated that strain TN-10 exhibited excellent characteristics to remove both nitrate and nitrite, with the removal rate of 95.44% and 99.87%, respectively. In addition, the nitrite reductase (NiR) and nitrate reductase (NR) involved in denitrification were both active, with the activities of 0.0815 and 0.0283 U/mg proteins, respectively. Furthermore, the aggregation ability, auto-aggregation kinetics, and the relationship between zeta potentials and flocculating efficiency were determined. These results indicated that the strain Klebsiella sp. TN-10, with efficient heterotrophic nitrification-aerobic denitrification ability, has potential application in wastewater treatment.