A fixed biofilm reactor system composed of anaerobic, anoxic(1), anoxic(2), aerobic(1) and aerobic(2) reactor was packed with synthetic activated ceramic (SAC) media and adopted to reduce the inhibition effect of low temperature on nitrification activities. The changes of nitrification activity at different wastewater temperature were investigated through the evaluation of temperature coefficient, volatile attached solid (VAS), specific nitrification rate and alkalinity consumption. Operating temperature was varied from 20 to 5 ℃. In this biofilm system, the specific nitrification rates of 15 ℃, 10 ℃ and 5 ℃ were 0.972, 0.859 and 0.613 when the specific nitrification rate of 20 ℃ was assumed to 1.00. Moreover the nitrification activity was also observed at 5 ℃ which is lower temperature than the critical temperature condition for the microorganism of activated sludge system. The specific amount of volatile attached solid (VAS) on media was maintained the range of 13.6-12.5 mg VAS/g media at 20~10 ℃. As the temperature was downed to 5 ℃, VAS was rapidly decreased to 10.9 mg VAS/g media and effluent suspended solids was increased from 3.2 mg/L to 12.0 mg/L due to the detachment of microorganism from SAC media. And alkalinity consumption was lower than theoretical value with 5.23 mg as CaCO3/mg NH4 +-N removal at 20 ℃. Temperature coefficient (θ) of nitrification rate (20 ℃ ~ 5 ℃) was 1.033. Therefore, this fixed film nitrogen removal process showed superior stability for low temperature condition than conventional suspended growth process.

The vertical distributions of nitrifying bacteria in aerobic fixed biofilm were investigated to evaluate the relationship between nitrification performance and microbial community at different HRT. Fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) and portable ion selective microelectrode system were adopted to analyze microbial communities and ions profiles according to the biofilm depth. Cilia media packed MLE (Modified Ludzack-Ettinger) like reactor composed of anoxic, aerobic Ⅰ/Ⅱ was operated with synthetic wastewater having COD 200 mg/L and NH4 +-N 40 mg/L at HRT of 6 hrs and 4 hrs. Total biofilm thickness of aerobic Ⅰ, Ⅱ reactor at 4 hrs condition was over two times than that of 6 hrs condition due to the sufficient substrate supply at 4 hrs condition (6 hrs; aerobic Ⅰ 380 ㎛ and Ⅱ 400 ㎛, 4 hrs; aerobic Ⅰ 830 ㎛ and Ⅱ 1040 ㎛). As deepen the biofilm detection point, the ratio of ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) was decreased while the ratio of nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB) was maintained similar distribution at both HRT condition. The ratio of AOB was higher at 4 hrs than 6 hrs condition and NH4 +-N removal efficiency was also higher at 4 hrs with 89.2% than 65.4% of 6 hrs. However, the ratio of NOB was decreased when HRT was reduced from 6 hrs to 4 hrs and NO2 --N accumulation was observed at 4 hrs condition. Therefore, it is considered that insufficient HRT condition could supply sufficient substrate and enrichment of AOB in all depth of fixed biofilm but cause decrease of NOB and nitrite accumulation.

The ion selective microelectrodes (ISME) have been applied to observe the continuous profiles of NO3-N and NH4-N in bulk solutions or biofilms. In order to evaluate the performance and applicability of ion concentration measuring system, the characteristics, such as slope of calibration curve, detection limit and potentiometric selectivity coefficient were investigated. The slopes of calibration curve showed high degree of correspondence for each target ion concentrations. And the detection limits of nitrate and ammonia ion selective microelectrode were 10-4.7 M and 10-4.4 M, respectively. These ion selective microelectrodes were proved that their own performance could be maintained for 16 days after making. NO3-N and NH4-N selective microelectrodes were also adapted to detect the continuous ion profiles of cilia media packed MLE (Modified Ludzack-Ettinger) process. And the monitored nitrate and ammonia ion profiles with the ion selective microelectrode were stable and well corresponded to the results with conventional ion chromatograph. However, the electric potential was unstable until 8 hr because of the unknown noise. The tip shape and performance of the ion selective microelectrode was stably kept over 2 days continuous monitoring.

Batch cultivations were performed to evaluate the influences of the initial pH condition on mesophilic and thermophilic acidogenic fermentation with food waste recycling wastewater. In both conditions of mesophilic and thermophilic fermentation, TVFAs production rates were maximized at the initial pH 7 condition as 0.15 and 0.23 g TVFAs/L·hr, respectively. And pH was also maintained stably between 6 and 7 during 72hr acidogenic cultivation at both conditions. However, predominant VFA components were different according to reaction temperature conditions. In mesophilic condition, propionic acid which has low conversion efficiency to methane was accumulated up to 1,348 mg/L while acetic and butyric acid were predominant in thermophilic condition. Therefore, thermophilic acidogenic fermentation was superior for the effective VFAs production than mesophilic condition. From the DGGE analysis, the band patterns were different according to the initial pH conditions but the correlations of the each band were increased in similar pH conditions. These results mean that microbial communities were certainly affected by the initial pH condition. Consequently, the adjustment of the initial pH to neutral region and thermophilic operation are needed to enhance acidogenic fermentation of food waste recycling wastewater.