TY - JOUR
T1 - Biodegradation kinetics of organic micropollutants and microbial community dynamics in a moving bed biofilm reactor
AU - Liang, Chuanzhou
AU - de Jonge, Nadieh
AU - Carvalho, Pedro N.
AU - Nielsen, Jeppe Lund
AU - Bester, Kai
N1 - Funding Information:
This study received funding via the BONUS CLEANWATER project which has received funding from BONUS (Art 185), funded jointly by the EU and Innovation Fund Denmark , Sweden's innovation agency VINNOVA and the German Ministry for Education and Science (BMBF). This study was also supported by the Interreg project “CWPharma”. TOC-L equipment was supported by the COWI foundation, Denmark. Chuanzhou Liang acknowledges the financial support for his PhD study from the Chinese Scholarship Council . Work in the laboratory of Jeppe Lund Nielsen was supported by The Novo Nordisk Foundation (Grant no. NNF16OC0021818 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/7/1
Y1 - 2021/7/1
N2 - Feast-famine moving bed biofilm reactors (MBBRs) have shown high potential for removing organic micropollutants from wastewater. However, the relationship between biofilm community during feast-famine adaptation and micropollutant removal is yet unclear. In this study, we determined the biotransformation kinetics of 36 micropollutants and characterized the microbial communities in an MBBR during a 71-day adaptation period of feast-famine regime (raw/effluent wastewater). The feast-famine regime significantly changed the biodegradation rate constants (k) of 24 micropollutants in different ways: 66 times enhanced degradation for propranolol, while more than 10 times for atenolol, metoprolol, tramadol and venlafaxine, less than 2.8 times for losartan, iomeprol and iohexol were detected. 25–60 days of adaptation time was needed to reach the maximum k. Biofilm accumulated during the adaptation, but the kDNA (k relative to the biofilm with DNA concentration as a proxy for kbiomass) of most micropollutants (except propranolol, metoprolol and venlafaxine) declined. This might indicate that the proliferation of potential degraders for micropollutants was slower than other microorganisms under the feast-famine regime. The microbial community changed significantly during the first 8 days of operation, followed by a relatively steady evolution towards the enrichment of nitrifiers until day 71. A multivariate statistical correlation analysis revealed that the development of occurrence of 88 individual taxonomic groups were found to exhibit a significant positive correlation to the kDNA of micropollutants (p < 0.05, r > 0.5), which represent potential biomarkers linking to biotransformation of micropollutants. These results fill the knowledge gaps between dynamics of biofilm communities and micropollutant removal in the feast-famine regime, which is essential for designing highly efficient MBBR.
AB - Feast-famine moving bed biofilm reactors (MBBRs) have shown high potential for removing organic micropollutants from wastewater. However, the relationship between biofilm community during feast-famine adaptation and micropollutant removal is yet unclear. In this study, we determined the biotransformation kinetics of 36 micropollutants and characterized the microbial communities in an MBBR during a 71-day adaptation period of feast-famine regime (raw/effluent wastewater). The feast-famine regime significantly changed the biodegradation rate constants (k) of 24 micropollutants in different ways: 66 times enhanced degradation for propranolol, while more than 10 times for atenolol, metoprolol, tramadol and venlafaxine, less than 2.8 times for losartan, iomeprol and iohexol were detected. 25–60 days of adaptation time was needed to reach the maximum k. Biofilm accumulated during the adaptation, but the kDNA (k relative to the biofilm with DNA concentration as a proxy for kbiomass) of most micropollutants (except propranolol, metoprolol and venlafaxine) declined. This might indicate that the proliferation of potential degraders for micropollutants was slower than other microorganisms under the feast-famine regime. The microbial community changed significantly during the first 8 days of operation, followed by a relatively steady evolution towards the enrichment of nitrifiers until day 71. A multivariate statistical correlation analysis revealed that the development of occurrence of 88 individual taxonomic groups were found to exhibit a significant positive correlation to the kDNA of micropollutants (p < 0.05, r > 0.5), which represent potential biomarkers linking to biotransformation of micropollutants. These results fill the knowledge gaps between dynamics of biofilm communities and micropollutant removal in the feast-famine regime, which is essential for designing highly efficient MBBR.
KW - DNA
KW - Feast-famine
KW - Metabolites
KW - Pharmaceuticals
KW - Transformation kinetics
KW - Wastewater treatment
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85101423507&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.cej.2021.128963
DO - 10.1016/j.cej.2021.128963
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85101423507
SN - 1385-8947
VL - 415
JO - Chemical engineering journal
JF - Chemical engineering journal
M1 - 128963
ER -