Analytica Chimica Acta 841 (2014) 7783

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Analytica Chimica Acta

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/aca

Automated dual capillary electrophoresis system with hydrodynamic

injection for the concurrent determination of cations and anions
Thi Thanh Thuy Pham a,b , Thanh Duc Mai a,b , Thanh Dam Nguyen b , Jorge Siz c ,
Hung Viet Pham b, ** , Peter C. Hauser a, *
a

University of Basel, Department of Chemistry, Spitalstrasse 51, Basel 4056, Switzerland

Centre for Environmental Technology and Sustainable Development (CETASD), Hanoi University of Science, Nguyen Trai Street 334, Hanoi, Viet Nam
Department of Analytical Chemistry, Physical Chemistry and Chemical Engineering University of Alcal, Ctra. Madrid-Barcelona km 33.6, Alcal de
Henares, Madrid 28871, Spain
b
c

H I G H L I G H T S

G R A P H I C A L A B S T R A C T

Concurrent determination of cations

and anions was carried out by
electrophoretic separation.

Optimized conditions for each class
of analystes was possible by using
separate capillaries.

Simultaneous hydrodynamic injection was carried out.

Pneumatic actuation was used for
ushing and sample handling.

The denitrication of drinking water
was successfully demonstrated.

A R T I C L E I N F O

A B S T R A C T

Article history:
Received 5 March 2014
Received in revised form 15 May 2014
Accepted 25 May 2014
Available online 29 May 2014

The capillary electrophoresis instrument developed for the concurrent determination of cations and
anions features two separate capillaries and individual detectors to allow independent optimization for
each group of ions. The capillaries are joined in a common injector block. The sample is drawn into the
injector with a small membrane pump and automated simultaneous injection into both capillaries is
achieved by pressurization of the uid with compressed air. Flushing of the injector and of the capillaries
with the background electrolyte is also carried out automatically by the same means. The buffer consisted
of 12 mM histidine and 2 mM 18-crown-6 adjusted to pH 4 with acetic acid and was suitable for the
contactless conductivity detection employed. The system was optimized for the determination of

cationic NH4+ and anionic NO
3 and NO2 , and linear calibration curves from about 20 mM up to about
1.5 mM were obtained for these ions. In a test run over 8 h, the reproducibility for the peak areas was
within 7%. For demonstration, the instrument was successfully applied to the concurrent monitoring of
the concentrations of the three ions during the biological removal of ammonium from contaminated

groundwater in a sequencing batch reactor, where NO
3 and NO2 are formed as intermediate products.
2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Dual-capillary electrophoresis
Capacitively coupled contactless
conductivity detection (C4D)
Simultaneous separations
Cations
Anions

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +41 612671003; fax: +41 61 267 1013.

** Corresponding author. Fax: +84 4 3858 8152.
E-mail addresses: phamhungviet@hus.edu.vn (H.V. Pham),
Peter.Hauser@unibas.ch (P.C. Hauser).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aca.2014.05.046
0003-2670/ 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Capillary electrophoresis (CE) is a relatively simple method as
basically only a capillary and a high voltage power supply are

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T.T.T. Pham et al. / Analytica Chimica Acta 841 (2014) 7783

needed for the separation of the analyte ions. It is, therefore,

possible to construct compact and inexpensive portable instruments for eld analysis [13]. Sample injection into the separation
capillary can easily be automated by employing a ow-injection
analysis (FIA) front end [46]. The use of a sequential injection
analysis (SIA) manifold as an alternative uid handling method for
capillary electrophoresis [7,8] is a bit more complex, but its higher
degree of versatility allows, for example, the implementation of
extended unattended monitoring [9], or automated preconcentration [10].
In CE the separation of both, cations and anions is possible.
However, if both types of ions must be determined in the same
sample this usually has to be done in two separate runs with
opposite polarity of the applied voltage. In order to simplify the
analysis, i.e. to enable concurrent separation of both types of ions,
the method of dual opposite end injection has been developed
[4,1117]. In this approach, analyte cations and anions migrate in
opposite direction through the capillary. The need to inject at both
ends is, however, a complication. It may be overcome by pumping a
sample plug from one capillary end to the other before separation
[18]. Nevertheless, these methods require careful optimization in
order to avoid peak overlaps arising from the opposite movement
of cations and anions. Alternatively, concurrent separation is
carried out in two separate capillaries, following simultaneous
injection from the same sample container. This was demonstrated
by Bchmann et al. in 1992 [19] employing two uorescence
detectors and simultaneous manual hydrostatic sample injection.
More recently, Huang et al. [20] reported a dual capillary system
for the determination of inorganic cations and anions in an aerosol
sample. However, this system was improvised and was based on
two completely separate injections into the two capillaries. Gaudry
et al. [21] reported an automated dual capillary system connected
to a manifold based on a peristaltic pump and a miniature piston
pump. The former was used for ushing of the system, including
the capillaries, with background electrolyte, and the latter for
sample aspiration followed by concurrent electrokinetic injections
into both capillaries from the same sample plug. The application of
the instrument to the monitoring of inorganic cations and anions
in industrial and municipal water samples was demonstrated.
Contactless conductivity detection (C4D) was employed for both of
these systems. Among other advantages, one of the features of this
detection method is low cost, so that the need for two detectors in
dual capillary electrophoresis is not a limitation. For fundamental
aspects of C4D see, for example, [2228]. Applications of C4D for CE
have been described in several reviews [2932].
The alternative automated dual CE system reported herein is
also based on contactless conductivity detection, uses a simple
pneumatic mechanism for the pumping of background electrolyte
and a small membrane pump for sample aspiration. The pneumatic
pressurization system also allowed the implementation of
hydrodynamic injection. This is generally preferred to the
electrokinetic injection employed by Gaudry et al. in their dual
capillary system [21]. Electrokinetic injection is easier to implement than hydrodynamic injection but suffers from a sampling
bias. The system was successfully applied to the simultaneous


monitoring of the concentrations of NH
4 , NO3 and NO2 during the
biological removal of ammonium from contaminated groundwater
in Hanoi, Vietnam.
2. Experimental
2.1. Chemicals and materials
All chemicals were of analytical or reagent grade and purchased
from Fluka (Buchs, Switzerland) or Merck (Darmstadt, Germany). For
the preparation of the stock solutions (10 mM) of chloride, nitrate,

sulfate and nitrite their sodium or potassium salts were used.

Similarly, those of the inorganic cations (NH4+, Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+, K+, Li+)
were prepared from the chloride salts. The separation buffer
consisted of 12 mM L-histidine (His) and 2 mM 18-crown-6 adjusted
to pH 4 with acetic acid. Before use, the capillaries were
preconditioned with 1 M NaOH for 15 min, 0.1 M NaOH for 5 min
and deionised water for 10 min prior to ushing with the buffer. The
groundwater contaminated with ammonium was collected from
Van Phuc village (Hanoi, Vietnam). Deionised water puried using a
system from Millipore (Bedford, MA, USA) was used for the
preparation of all solutions and for sample dilution if required.
2.2. Instrumentation
The solenoid valves were purchased from NResearch (116T021
and 116T031, Gmligen, Switzerland) and the micro-graduated
needle valve from Idex (P-470, Oak Harbor, WA, USA). The
membrane pump for sample aspiration was obtained from KNF
(NF-5-DCB, Balterswil, Switzerland). All uidic connections were
made with 0.02 in. i.d. and 1/16 in. o.d. Teon PFA tubing unless
otherwise stated and with 1/4-280 UNF ttings (Idex). The interface
accommodating the capillaries and the ground electrode was
machined in a PMMA (poly(methyl methacrylate)) block (3 cm
 2 cm  2 cm) and is a modication of the split injector reported
 et al. [5]. Pneumatic pressurization was achieved with a
by Kubn
standard cylinder of compressed nitrogen at 200 bar. The outlet
pressure was adjusted to 1 bar with a regulator.
The electrophoresis section was based on two dual polarity high
voltage power supplies (Spellman CZE2000, Pulborough, UK) with
30 kV maximum output. The high voltage electrodes were
contained in insulated cages tted with safety switches. Polyimide
coated fused silica capillaries of 50 mm i.d. and 365 mm o.d. (from
Polymicro, Phoenix, AZ, USA) were used for the separations. The high
voltage ends of the capillaries were isolated with safety cages made
from PMMA, which were equipped with microswitches to interrupt
the high voltage on opening. Detection was carried out with two
miniaturized high-voltage C4D cells built in-house. For excitation, a
sine wave of 400 kHz and 20 Vpp was produced with a function
generator integrated circuit (XR2206, Exar, Fremont CA, USA). This
was boosted to 200 Vpp using purpose-built transformers made
from two E 13/7/4, N87 ferrite cores with matching E 13/7/4 coil
formers. These components were obtained from EPCOS (Munich,
Germany) (product nos. B66305-G-X187 and B66306-C1010-T1).
The ampliers on the pick-up side (OPA602 and OPA2227) were
obtained from Texas Instruments (Austin, TX, USA), and the
synchronous detectors (AD630) from Analog Devices (Norwood,
MA, USA). The resulting signals were recorded with an e-corder 401
data acquisition system (eDAQ, Denistone East, NSW, Australia)
connected to the USB-port of a personal computer.
2.3. System control
The system was controlled with a personal computer via its
parallel port. A purpose-built electronic interface allowed switching of the stop-valves, of the 3-port valves and of the high voltage,
as well as triggering of the recording of electropherograms. The
solenoid valves were controlled via a special driver board obtained
from the supplier of the valves (CoolDrive, 116D5X12, NResearch).
The Forth programming package ProForth for Windows (MicroProcessor Engineering Limited, Southampton, UK) was used to
write the control code. Different modules were written to
independently carry out tasks including ushing of the interface
and capillaries, sample delivery, hydrodynamic injection and
electrophoretic separations. All modules were then assembled
together to produce the instruction protocol for the entire
analytical method.

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79

Fig. 1. Schematic drawing of the dual-capillary electrophoresis system. HV, high voltage; GND, electrical ground; V1, V2, electrically actuated 3-port valves; V3, V4,
electrically actuated stop valves; Pt: platinum electrodes.

2.4. Biological removal of ammonium from contaminated

groundwater
A 30 cm (width)  30 cm (depth)  60 cm (height) PMMA
sequencing batch reactor (SBR) for biological nitrogen removal
with a holding capacity of 54 L was constructed according to the
design by Lee et al. [33]. Aeration was carried out with an aquarium
air pump. The seed sludge used in this study was taken from an
urban wastewater treatment plant in Hanoi and was rst cultivated
for 15 days in tap-water to which sugar, and NPK fertilizer was
added prior to the ammonium removal experiments. Each
sequence of ammonium treatment in the SBR lasted for 6 h. First,
the reactor was lled with 30 L of ammonium-contaminated
groundwater. Subsequently, aeration of the solution inside the
reactor was implemented for 5 h using an air pump. After this
period, brown sugar was added to the reactor to provide an
endogenous organic carbon source as recommended by Guo et al.
[34]. Sedimentation was then carried out for one more hour under
an anoxic condition. Every hour during this 6-h treatment process,
a 5 mL aliquot was withdrawn from the reactor, ltered through a
0.45-mm membrane and analyzed without dilution.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. System design and operation
A schematic drawing of the system is given in Fig. 1. The uid
propulsion and handling system was adopted from an earlier
design [35]. It is based on pneumatic pumping (pressurization of a
reservoir of background electrolyte with compressed air) and twoand three-port valves to direct the ow. Sample is aspirated into a
sample loop, located between two 3-port valves, by a small
membrane pump (with dimensions of approximately 6 cm  2 cm
 2 cm). This is then transported to a split injector block made from
PMMA where the ends of both separation capillaries are located.
Some of the sample plug is pushed into the capillaries hydrodynamically by closing a valve at the exit of the interface to create a
backpressure for a controlled length of time. The desired
backpressure is set with an adjustable needle valve. More details
can be found in the earlier publication [35]. Both capillaries share a
common electrical ground electrode for the application of the
electrophoresis voltage, which is also located in the injector block.
The separation voltages are applied at the detection ends of the
two capillaries, using two high voltage modules set to either
negative or positive polarity for the separation of cations and
anions, respectively. The capillary ends are placed in buffer vials
together with the high voltage electrodes. Note that the
electrolysis occurring at the electrodes leads to a slow change of

the composition of the buffer in these containers. This tends to

affect the baseline due to the migration of ions into the capillary
from the far end. For this reason, the electrolyte in these containers
needs to be exchanged occasionally. This operation has not been
automated in the current system. For safety, the vials with the high
voltage electrodes are enclosed in PMMA cages which are tted
with microswitches to interrupt the power on opening.
The fact that the high voltages are applied at the detection ends
of the capillaries (rather than the injection end as is usually the
case) is not a problem with C4D. The two detector cells can be
positioned freely on the respective capillaries for independent
optimization as it is not necessary to remove the polyimide coating
at the detection point, as would be necessary for optical detection.
The detectors were built in-house and are a more compact and less
expensive modication of our proven design [36,37]. Mechanically,
the arrangement has been borrowed from Francisco and do Lago
[38] and is based on a stack of printed circuit boards which hold the
circuitry as well as the tubular electrodes and act as Faradaic shield
between the two half cells. More details on the mechanical cell setup can be seen in previous publications [39,40]. A block diagram of
the circuitry is given in Fig. 2 and consists of sine wave generator,
booster, tubular electrode pair, pick-up amplier, rectier, low pass
and offset circuitry. This has now been implemented completely in
surface mount technology, and the cells feature a built-in
miniature transformer to boost the excitation voltage to 200 V
peak-to-peak (400 kHz) for a high signal-to-noise ratio. An entire
detector could be housed in a small case of 10 cm length  6 cm
width  4 cm depth. The previous arrangement required a much
larger case to contain the electronic circuitry which needed to be
separate from the cell containing the electrodes. The performance
of the new device was found to be comparable to that of our earlier
design.
The operational sequence for the instrument is given in Table 1.
The protocol starts with the rinsing of the interface by allowing the
ow of the pressurized separation buffer through the sample loop

Fig. 2. Simplied electronic circuit diagram of the miniaturized high-voltage C4D.

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T.T.T. Pham et al. / Analytica Chimica Acta 841 (2014) 7783

Table 1
Typical operation sequence.
Step

Operation

Duration

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Flushing the interface

Flushing the capillaries
Aspiration of sample into the loop
Hydrodynamic injection
Flushing the interface after hydrodynamic injection
Concurrent separations
Flushing the interface after electrophoretic separations
Flushing the capillaries after separation

15 s
180 s
4s
Variable
3s
12 min
15 s
180 s

and the injector block while both stop valves at the outlet are open
(designated as V3 and V4). Then the electrolyte is forced through
the capillaries for ushing by closing both stop valves at the outlet
of the injector block. Subsequently, valves V1 and V2 are turned
and sample is aspirated into the sample loop by activation of the
membrane pump. Valves V1 and V2 are then turned back to the
original position, and the sample plug is pushed into the injection
interface by the pressurized buffer. A split injection into both
capillaries is then performed by turning on the required backpressure, which is set with the needle valve, by closing only V3
while leaving V4 open. The interface is then ushed again to
replace the sample by background electrolyte before commencement of the separation. Both high voltage power supplies are
turned on at the same time for the concurrent separations of the
anionic and cationic analytes in the respective capillaries. The
common electrode in the interface remains grounded at all times.

Operation
V1, V2

V3

V4

High voltage

Membrane pump

1
1
2
1
1
2
1
1

Open
Closed
Open
Closed
Open
Open
Open
Closed

Open
Closed
Open
Open
Open
Open
Open
Closed

Off
Off
Off
Off
Off
On
Off
Off

Off
Off
On
Off
Off
Off
Off
Off



3.3. Monitoring of the concentrations of NH
4 , NO3 and NO2 during
biological removal of ammonium from contaminated groundwater

In Hanoi, groundwater, which is an important source for

drinking water, is often contaminated by ammonium [41].
Chronic consumption of this contaminated groundwater results
in ammonium accumulation in the body, which in turn can lead to
the problems of methemoglobinemia in infants and the formation
of carcinogenic nitrosamines. Biological removal of ammonium
from contaminated water using a sequencing batch reactor is a
reliable, inexpensive, and simple method [34,42,43], which has
been practiced in Hanoi. The treatment process consists of two
main steps. In the rst step, NH4+ is microbially oxidized to NO
2
and NO
3 under aerobic conditions. In the second step, denitrication of these ions to molecular nitrogen occurs under anoxic
conditions. A schematic drawing of the small experimental reactor

3.2. Performance
A slightly acidic background electrolyte (pH 4), which was
based on histidine, acetic acid and 18-crown-6 and had been used
successfully for the separation of inorganic cations as well as
anions by CE-C4D [9,35], was employed to investigate the
performance of the dual CE system. At the relatively low pH,
the electro-osmotic ow (EOF) is suppressed; therefore, no EOF
modication is needed. 18-crown-6 was included to facilitate
baseline separation of K+ and NH4+. An example of the concurrent
analysis of a standard mixture of cations and anions in the two
capillaries is shown in Fig. 3. As discussed, for example, in [35], a
CE-C4D system may be optimized either for fast separations, for
low limits of detection or for high separation efciency, and
compromises have to be made. In view of the application example
discussed below, the system was set up for high separation
efciency by injecting relatively short plugs of sample. The
calibration data for the three ions of interest (ammonium, nitrite
and nitrate) is given in Table 2. For NH4+ linearity up to 2000 mM
was achieved. For the anions nitrite and nitrate, the linear ranges
were somewhat shorter (up to 1500 mM). The correlation
coefcients obtained were better than 0.999 for all three ions.
The reproducibilities of the measurements of peak areas and
migration times were better than 5% and around 1%, respectively.
The system was then set up for a supervised test run over a
period of 8 h, during which repeated measurements of the
standard mixture were carried out automatically at intervals of
15 min. The membrane pump also enabled automatic aspiration of
the sample for each measurement. The results for peak areas are
shown in Fig. 4. The maximum deviations are less than 7%, which
is deemed acceptable considering that these are due to the
accumulation of the errors of all operations, i.e. sample loading,
delivery, injection, separation and temperature uctuations. A drift
in peak areas is not evident from the data for this 8 h run, which
demonstrates the suitability of the system for unattended
operation.

Fig. 3. Concurrent separations of inorganic anions and cations. (A) Cations: NH4+,
50 mM; K+, 75 mM; Ca2+, 75 mM; Na+, 225 mM; Mg2+, 75 mM; Li+, 50 mM. (B) Anions:

2
Cl (400 mM); NO
(75 mM). Electrolyte: 12 mM
3 (75 mM); NO2 (75 mM); SO4
histidine and 2 mM 18-crown-6 adjusted to pH 4 with CH3COOH. Capillaries:
fused silica, 50 mm i.d., 40 cm effective length and 55 cm total length. Sample
loop: 50 mL. Gas pressure: 0.8 bar. Separation voltage: +15 kV for anion- and
15 kV for cation-separation.

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81

Table 2


Calibration ranges, limits of detection and reproducibilities for the concurrent determination of NH
4 , NO3 and NO2 . Electrolyte: 12 mM histidine and 2 mM 18-crown-6
adjusted to pH 4 with acetic acid.
Ion

Linear range (mM)a

Correlation coefcient, r2

Limit of detectionb (mM)

Reproducibility of peak area (RSD%)c

Reproducibility of migration time (RSD%)c

NO
3
NO
3
NH
4

151500
251500
152000

0.9995
0.9997
0.9991

6.0
7.5
5.0

4.5
3.9
3.3

1.1
1.2
1.2

a
b
c

5 Concentrations.
Concentrations corresponding to peak heights of 3 times the baseline noise.
Relative standard deviation in %, n = 6.

used for this study is shown in Fig. 5. Activated sludge and

groundwater were rst added to the tank. To create the aerobic
conditions, air was passed in with a small aquarium pump, and this
also led to an effective mixing. During the second step, when
aeration had stopped, the sludge slowly settled (within about
15 min.), and the supernatant clean water could then be drawn off.
To monitor the process, the concentrations of the indicative


nitrogen-ions, namely, NH
4 , NO3 and NO2 , need to be determined

periodically. Analyses of NO
and
NO
have
mostly been carried
3
2
out with ion chromatography, whereas NH4+ has frequently been
determined by spectrophotometry using Nesslers reagent. These
methods, while working well for discrete samples, are costly and
laborious if frequent sampling and determination of these positive
and negative ions are needed. Here, we propose a simple and
inexpensive method for the concurrent determination of NH
4,

NO
3 and NO2 using the developed dual-channel CE system. The
raw groundwater sample and those withdrawn from the biological
reactor were ltered and fed into the dual CE system without

Fig. 4. Stability test. The concentrations of the ions and other conditions were as for
Fig. 3.

dilution. Note that while the instrument is capable of automated

sample aspiration and operation (see Section 3.2), this feature was
not made use of for this demonstration because of the high burden
with suspended solids during most of the process. It would have
been fairly difcult to set up reliable on-line ltering. NH
4 was

determined in one channel and NO
3 and NO2 in the other.
Electropherograms of groundwater samples taken before, during
and after the biological ammonium removal process are shown in
Fig. 6. As can be seen, the groundwater contained abundant
2+
concentrations of Cl, SO2
and Na+ which, of course, stayed
4 , Ca
constant during the biological ammonium treatment. The con

centrations of NH
4 , NO3 and NO2 on the other hand varied
considerably during the treatment process. Plots of the concentrations of these ions over time are given in Fig. 7. At the beginning
(t = 0), an extremely high concentration of ammonium (1300 mM)
was recorded, whereas only a minor amount of nitrite was found.
The nitrate concentration was below the detection limit. As the
collected groundwater was under an anoxic environment, nitrogen
species in this groundwater should be present in the most reduced
form, which is NH4+ rather than the oxidized products NO
3 and
+
NO
2 . A rapid decrease in NH4 concentrations during the rst 5 h of
the treatment when aeration took place was clearly observed. At
the same time, the concentration of NO
3 increased accordingly,
reecting the occurrence of nitrication. The maximum concentration of NO
3 was observed at 240 mM at the end of the aeration
process. The concentration of NO
2 , the intermediate product when

Fig. 5. Schematic drawing of the activated sludge reactor. During the treatment
process, samples were drawn from tap 2, and at the end, after the sludge had settled,
clean water was taken from tap 3.

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T.T.T. Pham et al. / Analytica Chimica Acta 841 (2014) 7783



Fig. 7. Concentration proles of NH
4 , NO3 and NO2 monitored by CE during
the biological treatment of ammonium-contaminated groundwater. Other
conditions as for Fig. 3.

4. Conclusions
A dual-channel CE system for the concurrent determination of
cations and anions was constructed and successfully demonstrated
for the monitoring of biological nitrogen removal from ammonium
contaminated groundwater. The instrument is inexpensive, simple
in construction and can therefore be assembled with little effort.
The state-of-the-art contactless conductivity detectors can be built
with modest expertise in electronics. The only item that required
engineering workshop facilities was the injection block, but it
should be possible to substitute this with commercial capillary
connectors [21]. Pneumatic actuation proved to be a facile
approach to the implementation of hydrodynamic injection, which
is essential in order to avoid a bias which otherwise occurs when
samples of varying background conductivity are to be analysed.
Further integration and miniaturization in order to obtain an
readily portable instrument and battery operation are possible.
Acknowledgements

Fig. 6. Electropherograms of ammonium-contaminated groundwater during

treatment. (A) Cations; (B) anions. The labels on the electropherograms refer to
the time delay from the commencement of the treatment. The electrophoresis
conditions were as for Fig. 3.

ammonium is oxidized to nitrate, sharply increased in the rst

hour, but then slightly diminished when the treatment further
proceeded. In the last hour, when the environment inside the
reactor was switched to anaerobic conditions, the NH4+ content

remained almost unchanged while those of NO
3 and NO2
decreased. This is because denitrication of the generated NO
3
and NO
2 leads to their conversion to gaseous nitrogen. After 6 h of
treatment, the ammonium content was decreased by 88%, 73% of
which was converted into gaseous nitrogen (calculated based on
the molar ratio of decreasing NH4+ to oxidized nitrogen ions NO
3
and NO
2 ). The nitrogen removal efciency was slightly lower than
that achieved with a step-feed sequencing batch reactor in which
real-time control of the pH, oxidation reduction potential and
dissolved oxygen was implemented in order to optimize ammonium elimination [34].

The authors would like to thank the Swiss National Science

Foundation (Grant No. 200020-137676/1) and the National
Foundation for Science and Technology Development of Vietnam
(NAFOSTED, Grant No. 104.04-2013.70) for funding, as well as the
Swiss Federal Commission for Scholarships for Foreign Students
(ESKAS) for a grant to Thi Thanh Thuy Pham (Grant No. 2010.0331).
The authors also would like to acknowledge Van Tang Nguyen and
Van Quan Nguyen (CETASD, Hanoi University of Science) for help
with some instrumental and enzyme-culturing operations.
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