3. Results and discussion3.1. System designThe anaerobic loop (Fig. 1H–K;Table 1)thatispartofthemarine RAS described herein integrated complementary microbial processes (Table 2) that provided highly efficient treatment of toxic nitrogen waste products and organic carbon waste produced during thefish growth cycle. It includes compartments for the anaerobic digestion of organic solids collected from thefish tanks, coupled to sulfate reduction (Fig. 1H, I), heterotrophic and autotrophic denitrification using organic compounds and sulfide as electron donors for nitrate reduction, as well as the anammox process (Fig.1). Coupling anammox and denitrification processes in the same reactor resulted in the simultaneous uptake of sulfide, ammonia and nitrate (Fig. 2A–C) under anaerobic conditions, creating a process termed denammox (Pathak and Kazama, 2007; van der Star et al., 2007). Moreover, the organic sludge generated by the system was consumed partially as an endogenous carbon source for denitrification and the remaining sludge was converted to biogas in a methanogenic bioreactor (Fig. 1K). The combined processes ultimately reduced the total volumeof discharged organic solids by more than 96% and resulted in the production of methane that may be harvested and used directly as an energy source. Since salt-laden sludge generated by the RAS cannot be used as fertilizer or landfill, these system components are essential for reducing the solid waste generated by a marine RAS. The unique configuration of the water treatment system promotes the formation of three distinct redox zones that support the complementary microbial processes necessary for complete water recovery (Fig. 3A); the aerated centralfish culture tanks and nitrification biofilter were at the highest redox potential (400 ± 100 mV) while the sludge digestion tanks were at the lowest (−500 ± 100 mV), generating a redox gradient within the water treatment system of almost 1V. The design of the marine RAS also provided autonomous maintenance of optimal water alkalinity and pH. Aerobic nitrification and fish respiration reduced alkalinity (as bicarbonate) and pH, whereas the anaerobic solids digestion and denitrification, increased alkalinity, ultimately balancing the system pH (Fig. 3B). This phenomenon has been described previously (van Rijn et al., 2006) and emphasizes the self-sustaining nature of the system.
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