Bacterial communities in industrial wastewater bioreactors

Acoustic cavitation for the process intensification of biological oxidation of CETP effluent containing mainly pharmaceutical compounds: Understanding into effect of parameters and toxicity analysis

The current work investigates the efficacy of acoustic cavitation (AC) based pretreatment as a process intensification method for improving the conventional biological oxidation (BO) treatment of the effluent from common effluent treatment plant (CETP) mainly containing pharmaceutical compounds. The effluent acclimatized with cow dung-based sludge was utilized for the aerobic oxidation with an optimum condition of 1:3 ratio of sludge to effluent and 6 h as duration. COD reduction of 19.58% was achieved with the conventional biological oxidation, which was demonstrated to be improved by incorporating acoustic cavitation-based pretreatment approaches under optimized conditions of 125 W and 70% duty cycle for only AC as well as oxidant loadings as 1000 mg/L for H₂O₂, 250 mg/L Fe(II) with 1000 mg/L H₂O₂ for Fenton, 1000 mg/L for KPS and 0.5 L/min for the O₃ during the combination approaches. The improved COD reduction after the use of pretreatment approaches followed by the BO of 6 h duration was 29.26%, 72.42%, 85.47%, 45.68% and 69.26% for the AC, AC + H₂O₂, AC + Fenton, AC + KPS and AC + O₃ based approaches respectively. The toxicity assay of the effluent before and after every pretreatment approach using bacterial strains ofStaphylococcus aureusandPseudomonas aeruginosaensured the biodegradability of the treated effluent as no toxic intermediates could be seen. Overall, the present work elucidated the effectiveness of acoustic cavitation-based pretreatment approaches for the improvement of conventional BO of CETP effluent.

Biological treatment of coke plant effluents: from a microbiological perspective

During coke production, large volume of effluent is generated, which has a very complex chemical composition and contains several toxic and carcinogenic substances, mainly aromatic compounds, cyanide, thiocyanate and ammonium. The composition of these high-strength effluents is very diverse and depends on the quality of coals used and the operating and technological parameters of coke ovens. In general, after initial physicochemical treatment, biological purification steps are applied in activated sludge bioreactors. This review summarizes the current knowledge on the anaerobic and aerobic transformation processes and describes key microorganisms, such as phenol- and thiocyanate-degrading, floc-forming, nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria, which contribute to the removal of pollutants from coke plant effluents. Providing the theoretical basis for technical issues (in this case the microbiology of coke plant effluent treatment) aids the optimization of existing technologies and the design of new management techniques.

Strategies to improve biological oxidation of real wastewater using cavitation based pre-treatment approaches

The present work demonstrates the effective application of pretreatment based on cavitation to improve biological oxidation of real municipal and industrial wastewater. The optimum pretreatment conditions based on ultrasonic cavitation for treatment of municipal wastewater were observed as power dissipation of 90 W, a duty cycle of 70% and H₂O₂ dosage of 0.2 g/L resulting in about 24.9% COD reduction. The use of modified sludge and ultrasonic pretreatment for biological oxidation resulted in significant reduction in treatment time (36 h) than the treatment time (60 h) required for biological oxidation using untreated sludge as inoculum. Also, significantly enhanced biodegradability index (BI) from 0.33 to 0.6 was achieved using pretreatment for biological oxidation process. For the treatment of real industrial wastewater, different pretreatment approaches based on hydrodynamic cavitation (HC) in combination with H₂O₂, ozone or Fenton were investigated. The pretreatment using best approach of HC + Fenton resulted in 44.2% of COD reduction in total whereas only 28.1% of COD reduction was achieved for the untreated effluent being applied in the biological oxidation. Overall, the present work demonstrated the effectiveness of the pretreatment based on cavitation for the improved treatment of municipal and industrial wastewaters.

The pollutants removal and bacterial community dynamics relationship within a full-scale British Gas/Lurgi coal gasification wastewater treatment using a novel system

The novel system of EBA (based on external circulation anaerobic (EC) process-biological enhanced (BE) process-anoxic/oxic (A/O) process) was applied to treat the British Gas/Lurgi coal gasification wastewater in Erdos, China. After a long time of commissioning, the EBA system represented a stable and highly efficient performance, particularly, the concentrations of COD, NH4(+)-N, total organic carbon, total nitrogen and volatile phenols in the final effluent reached 53, 0.3, 18, 106mg/L and not detected, respectively. Both the GC-MS and fluorescence excitation-emission matrix analyses revealed significant variations of organic compositions in the effluent of different process. The results of high-throughput sequencing represented the EBA system composed 34 main bacteria which were affiliated to 7 phyla. In addition, the canonical correspondence analysis indicated high coherence among community composition, wastewater characteristics and environmental variables, in which the pH, mixed liquid suspended solids and total phenols loading were the most three significant variables.

The use of PCR-DGGE to determine bacterial fingerprints for poultry and red meat abattoir effluent

Strict legislation and chemical composition monitoring of effluent may be useful, but the data generated do not allow for source tracking, and enforcing legislation remains problematic in the South African setting. These difficulties emphasize the necessity for effluent source traceability. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) targeting the V3 region of the 16S rRNA gene was considered as fingerprinting technique for effluent originating from abattoirs slaughtering different animal species. The influence of treatment to remove excess fat from effluent prior to molecular analyses and different PCR approaches on the detection of bacterial diversity were considered. Use of a treatment option to remove fat and a nested PCR approach resulted in up to 51% difference in inter-sample diversity similarity. A robust approach with no pre-treatment to remove PCR inhibitors, such as fat, and direct amplification from genomic DNA yielded optimal/maximal bacterial diversity fingerprints. Repeatable fingerprints were obtained for poultry abattoir effluent over a 4-month period, but profiles for the red meat abattoir varied with maximum similarity detected only 33·2%. Genetic material from faecal indicators Aeromona spp and Clostridium spp were detected. Genera unique to each effluent were present; Anoxybacillus, Patulibacter and Oleispira in poultry abattoir effluent and Porphyromonas and Peptostreptococcus in red meat abattoir effluent.

SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY

This study was the first to demonstrate the application of denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) to construct bacterial diversity fingerprints for high-throughput abattoir effluents. Proved redundancy of fat removal as PCR inhibitor and change in diversity similarity introduced by nested PCR approach. The importance of limiting excessive handling/processing which could lead to misrepresented diversity profiles was emphasized.

Industrial activated sludge exhibit unique bacterial community composition at high taxonomic ranks

Biological degradation of domestic and industrial wastewater by activated sludge depends on a common process of separation of the diverse self-assembled and self-sustained microbial flocs from the treated wastewater. Previous surveys of bacterial communities indicated the presence of a common core of bacterial phyla in municipal activated sludge, an observation consistent with the concept of ecological coherence of high taxonomic ranks. The aim of this work was to test whether this critical feature brings about a common pattern of abundance distribution of high bacterial taxa in industrial and domestic activated sludge, and to relate the bacterial community structure of industrial activated sludge with relevant operational parameters. We have applied 454 pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA genes to evaluate bacterial communities in full-scale biological wastewater treatment plants sampled at different times, including seven systems treating wastewater from different industries and one plant that treats domestic wastewater, and compared our datasets with the data from municipal wastewater treatment plants obtained by three different laboratories. We observed that each industrial activated sludge system exhibited a unique bacterial community composition, which is clearly distinct from the common profile of bacterial phyla or classes observed in municipal plants. The influence of process parameters on the bacterial community structure was evaluated using constrained analysis of principal coordinates (CAP). Part of the differences in the bacterial community structure between industrial wastewater treatment systems were explained by dissolved oxygen and pH. Despite the ecological relevance of floc formation for the assembly of bacterial communities in activated sludge, the wastewater characteristics are likely to be the major determinant that drives bacterial composition at high taxonomic ranks.

Nutrient gradients in a granular activated carbon biofilter drives bacterial community organization and dynamics

The quality of drinking water is ensured by hygienic barriers and filtration steps, such as ozonation and granular activated carbon (GAC) filtration. Apart from adsorption, GAC filtration involves microbial processes that remove biodegradable organic carbon from the ozonated ground or surface water and ensures biological stability of the treated water. In this study, microbial community dynamics in were monitored during the start-up and maturation of an undisturbed pilot-scale GAC filter at 4 depths (10, 45, 80 and 115 cm) over a period of 6 months. New ecological tools, based on 16S rRNA gene-DGGE, were correlated to filter performance and microbial activity and showed that the microbial gradients developing in the filter was of importance. At 10 cm from the top, receiving the freshly ozonated water with the highest concentration of nutrients, the microbial community dynamics were minimal and the species richness remained low. However, the GAC samples at 80-115 cm showed a 2-3 times higher species richness than the 10-45 cm samples. The highest biomass densities were observed at 45-80 cm, which corresponded with maximum removal of dissolved and assimilable organic carbon. Furthermore, the start-up period was clearly distinguishable using the Lorenz analysis, as after 80 days, the microbial community shifted to an apparent steady-state condition with increased evenness. This study showed that GAC biofilter performance is not necessarily correlated to biomass concentration, but rather that an elevated functionality can be the result of increased microbial community richness, evenness and dynamics.

Wastewater treatment: a model system for microbial ecology

Biological wastewater treatment is among the most important biotechnological applications and, as drivers of the key processes, microorganisms are central to its success. Therefore, the study of wastewater microorganisms has obvious applied significance; however, the importance of wastewater treatment reactors as model systems for microbial ecology is often overlooked. Modern molecular techniques, including environmental genomics, have identified unexpected microbial key players for nutrient removal and sludge bulking and/or foaming, and provided many exciting insights into the diversity, functions and niche differentiations of these predominantly uncultivated microorganisms. It is now time for wastewater microbiology to be recognized as a mature and dynamic discipline in its own right, offering much toward a deeper understanding of life in complex microbial communities. Here, we consider selected key findings to illustrate the past and future roles of molecular ecophysiology and genomics in the development of wastewater microbiology as an important subdiscipline of microbial ecology.