Biofilm formation and microbial community analysis of the simulated river bioreactor for contaminated source water remediation

Quorum sensing - a promising tool for degradation of industrial waste containing persistent organic pollutants

Restoring an environment contaminated with persistent organic pollutants (POPs) is highly challenging. Biodegradation by biofilm-forming bacteria through quorum sensing (QS) is a promising treatment process to remove these pollutants and promotes eco-restoration. QS plays an important role in biofilm formation, solubilization, and biotransformation of pollutants. QS is a density-based communication between microbial cells via signalling molecules, which coordinates specific characters and helps bacteria to acclimatize against stress conditions. Genetic diversification of a biofilm offers excellent opportunities for horizontal gene transfer, improves resistance against stress, and provides a suitable environment for the metabolism of POPs. To develop this technology in industrial scale, it is important to understand the fundamentals and ubiquitous nature of QS bacteria and appreciate the role of QS in the degradation of POPs. Currently, there are knowledge gaps regarding the environmental niche, abundance, and population of QS bacteria in wastewater treatment systems. This review aims to present up-to-date and state-of-the-art information on the roles of QS and QS-mediated strategies in industrial waste treatment including biological treatments (such as activated sludge), highlighting their potentials using examples from the pulp and paper mill industry, hydrocarbon remediation and phytoremediation. The information will help to provide a throughout understanding of the potential of QS to degrade POPs and advance the use of this technology. Current knowledge of QS strategies is limited to laboratory studies, full-scale applications remain challenging and more research is need to explore QS gene expression and test in full-scale reactors for wastewater treatment.

New Insights into the Relationships between Bacterial Dynamics and Water Quality of Aquaculture Systems Supplemented with Carbon Source and Biofilm Substratum

Aquaculture is crucial for achieving the FAO’s goal of a world without hunger and malnutrition. Recently, biofilm substratum has been proposed as an effective means to control waste pollution caused by excessive nutrient inputs from aquaculture, but key bacterial communities involved in the remediation remain unclear. Here we reported a freshwater mesocosm study where the addition of biofilm substrata with external carbon effectively controlled the total ammonia nitrogen and improved fish growth. 16S rRNA study and Weighted UniFrac analysis revealed that bacterial compositions were significantly different (999 permutations, p-value < 0.01) between the biofilm-substrata-added and biofilm-substrata-free systems. Planctomycetes were found, as key bacteria benefited from the biofilm substrata addition and exerted the major function of ammonia nitrogen control. Our study demonstrated that the addition of biofilm substrata and an external carbon source favored fish growth and improved the aquaculture environment by the formation of a unique bacteria community.

Evaluation of tire derived rubber (TDR) fixed biofilm reactor (FBR) for remediation of Methylene blue dye from wastewater

The present investigation is focused on development of aerobic biofilm on tire-derived rubber (TDR) media and then evaluation of such system for bioremediation of Methylene blue (MB) dye for 9 weeks. After 9 weeks of operation, the COD, BOD, ammonia and color values have been declined by 89.2%, 98.3%, 99.61% and 99.81%, respectively, While SEM-EDX results showed a variance in weight percent of various elements in TDR without biofilm i.e. raw TDR media, as well as in the 1st and 9th-week samples. Moreover, fine and strong peaks were observed in both the MB simulated wastewater and 9th week TDR samples at 1190, 1300, 1400, 1450, 1500 and 1618 cm^-1 respectively by Raman Spectroscopic analysis. Further, FTIR analysis was performed for the MB simulated wastewater, and absorbance peaks ranging from 1591 to 1363 cm^-1 and 3410 cm^-1 were observed in all the samples with different intensities. To assess the biodeterioration of the TDR media, ATR was performed for the raw, 1st, 2nd and 9th week TDR media samples and in the raw TDR, two important bands, 842 and 2962 cm^-1 were noticed representing -CH = CH and -CH₃. A clear variation of bands and peak intensities were observed in different support media samples. The results indicate that TDR media is a resilient, chemically resistant material and could be employed for the biofilm growth for biological treatment of textile dye wastewater.

Assessment of the aerobic glass beads fixed biofilm reactor (GBs-FBR) for the treatment of simulated methylene blue wastewater

The present research is focused on the application of glass beads (GBs) in fixed biofilm reactor (FBR) for the treatment of simulated methylene blue (MB) wastewater for 9 weeks under aerobic conditions. The COD of MB wastewater showed a reduction of 86.48% from 2000 to 270.4 mg/L, and BOD was declined up to 97.7% from 1095.5 to 25.03 mg/L. A drastic increase in the pH was observed until the 3rd week (8.5 to 8.28), and later, marginal changes between 8.30 ± 0.02 were noticed. A dramatic fluctuation was observed in ammonia concentration which increased (74.25 mg/L) up till the 2nd week, and from the 3rd week it started declining. In the 9th week, the ammonia concentration dropped to 16.5 mg/L. The color intensity increased significantly up till the 2nd week (259,237.46 Pt/Co) of the experiment and started decreasing slowly thereafter. The SEM-EDX analysis has shown the maximum quantity of carbon content in the GBs without biofilm, and then in the GB samples of 1st, and 9th-week old aerobic biofilms. Furthermore, Raman spectroscopy results revealed that the 9th-week GBs has a fine and strong MB peak and matched with that of the MB stock solution. Overall, the results have shown that the GBs filter media were suitable for the development of active biofilm communities for the treatment of dye wastewater. Thus, GBs-FBR system can be used for wastewater treatment to solve the current problem of industrial pollution in many countries and to protect the aquatic environment from dye pollution caused by the textile industry.

Remediation of Polluted River Water by Biological, Chemical, Ecological and Engineering Processes

Selection of appropriate river water treatment methods is important for the restoration of river ecosystems. An in-depth review of different river water treatment technologies has been carried out in this study. Among the physical-engineering processes, aeration is an effective, sustainable and popular technique which increases microbial activity and degrades organic pollutants. Other engineering techniques (water diversion, mechanical algae removal, hydraulic structures and dredging) are effective as well, but they are cost intensive and detrimental to river ecosystems. Riverbank filtration is a natural, slow and self-sustainable process which does not pose any adverse effects. Chemical treatments are criticised for their short-term solution, high cost and potential for secondary pollution. Ecological engineering-based techniques are preferable due to their high economic, environmental and ecological benefits, their ease of maintenance and the fact that they are free from secondary pollution. Constructed wetlands, microbial dosing, ecological floating beds and biofilms technologies are the most widely applicable ecological techniques, although some variabilities are observed in their performances. Constructed wetlands perform well under low hydraulic and pollutant loads. Sequential constructed wetland floating bed systems can overcome this limitation. Ecological floating beds are highly recommended for their low cost, high effectiveness and optimum plant growth facilities.

Evaluation of the long-term performance in a large-scale integrated surface flow constructed wetland-pond system: A case study

Limited information is available in regards to the long-term treatment performance of large-scale integrated surface flow constructed wetland-pond (ISFWP) system improving drinking water source. This study aimed to investigate the treatment performance of a large-scale ISFWP system for the improvement of drinking water source. During five years of operation, the average effluent water quality in the ISFWP system could comply with Chinese Environmental Quality Standards for Drinking Water Source. The average removal efficiencies of permanganate index (COD_Mn), ammonia nitrogen, total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus, and fecal coliforms were 7.6%, 44.3%, 42.9%, 50.8%, and 88.6%, respectively. The treatment performance in the ISFWP system was stable during the operation time, while TN removal efficiency declined by 38.2% after five years of operation. Moreover, contaminants removal efficiencies were not subject to change of season, except for COD_Mn and TN. Consequently, efficient and sustainable contaminants removal in the large-scale ISFWP system still possessed challenges, especially for COD_Mn and TN.

Biofilms-Impacts on Human Health and Its Relevance to Space Travel

As the world looks towards the stars, the impacts of endogenous and exogenous microorganisms on human health during long-duration space flight are subjects of increased interest within the space community. The presence and continued growth of bacterial biofilms about spacecraft has been documented for decades; however, the impact on crew health is in its infancy. The impacts of biofilms are well known in the medical, agricultural, commercial, and industrial spaces. It less known that biofilms are undermining many facets of space travel and that their effects need to be understood and addressed for future space missions. Biofilms can damage space crew health and spoil limited food supply. Yet, at the same time, they can benefit plant systems for food growth, nutrient development, and other biological systems that are being explored for use in space travel. Various biofilm removal techniques have been studied to mitigate the hazards posed by biofilm persistence during space travel. Because the presence of biofilms can advance or hinder humanity’s space exploration efforts, an understanding of their impacts over the duration of space flights is of paramount importance.

Performance and microbial diversity of denitrifying biofilms on polyurethane foam coupled with various solid carbon sources for nitrate-rich water purification

This study investigated the performance and microbial communities of denitrifying biofilms on polyurethane foam coupled with various solid carbon sources of acid- and alkali-pretreated rice straw and rice husk. Results showed that acid and alkali-pretreated rice straw both had higher TOC release rates (0.041-0.685 mg g^-1 day^-1) than those of rice husk (0.019-0.160 mg g^-1 day^-1) over a month, while acid pretreatment of rice husk and rice straw had a much higher organics release rate than that of alkali pretreatment and non-pretreatment, respectively. Acid-pretreated rice straw achieved the most efficient TN removal performance (82.06 ± 3.65%) with the lower occurrences of NH₄⁺-N during denitrification than that of alkali-pretreated rice straw (80.05 ± 4.12%) over more than a month operation. However, alkali pretreatment of rice husk demonstrated much more significantly efficient TN removal efficiency (80.39 ± 2.1%) than did acid pretreatment (69.59 ± 13.43%). MiSeq sequencing analysis showed that the four biofilm samples attached on polyurethane foam with the addition of pretreated rice straw or rice husk had a range of 13-15 differentially abundant phylum and 81-123 differentially abundant genera in comparison with biofilm without extra solid carbon sources, and a higher TN removal efficiency demonstrated more types of differentially abundant genera.

Nitrogen and phosphorus removal comparison between periphyton on artificial substrates and plant-periphyton complex in floating treatment wetlands

Artificial substrates (ASs) and floating treatment wetlands (FTWs) have been widely used in the treatment of polluted surface water. In fact, periphyton on ASs functions in nutrient removal, while the plant-periphyton complex functions in FTWs. However, the nutrient removal performance of the periphyton on ASs and the plant-periphyton complex in FTWs has not been systematically compared. Thus, ASs and FTWs were established in a mesocosm experiment to compare nitrogen and phosphorus removal between the two ecological treatment techniques. The results showed that the total nitrogen removal efficiency was 60.4% in the AS treatments and 65.3% in the FTWs, while the total phosphorus removal efficiency was 83.7% in the AS treatments and 39.45% in the FTWs. Periphyton on the ASs absorbed 2.5 g N m^-2 and 0.85 g P m^-2, accounting for 20.8% of the N removal and 18.7% of the P removal. Sedimentation contributed to 71.3% of the N removal and 56.1% of the P removal in the AS treatments. For the plant-periphyton complex in the FTWs, 25.1% of the N and 53.0% of the P accumulated in plant tissue. Most of the reduced N (47.1%) was removed by other pathways, which was likely the effect of periphyton attached on plant roots and floating rafts. The nutrient removal efficiencies and pathways of AS and FTW treatments showed different characteristics, providing a reference for the selection of treatment measures for polluted surface water remediation.

Nitrifying bio-cord reactor: performance optimization and effects of substratum and air scouring

Ammonia removal kinetics and solids' production performance of the bio-cord technology are studied in this research. Three nitrifying reactors housing different bio-cord substratum were operated at five different ammonia loading rates. All of the bio-cord substrata demonstrated stable and high ammonia-nitrogen removal efficiencies of 96.8 ± 0.9%, 97.0 ± 0.6% and 92.0 ± 0.4% at loading rates of 0.8, 1.6 and 1.8 g -N/m² d, respectively. At these same loading rates, the bio-cord reactors housing the three substrata also showed low solids' production rates of 0.19 ± 0.03, 0.23 ± 0.02, 0.25 ± 0.03 g total suspended solids/d. A reduction of system stability, identified via fluctuating ammonia removal rates, was however observed for all substrata at loading rates of 2.1 and 2.4 g -N/m² d. Further, the solids' production rates at these higher loading conditions were also observed to fluctuate for all substrata, likely indicating intermediate sloughing events. The effects of enhancing the air scouring of the bio-cord on the ammonia removal rate was shown to be dependent upon the substratum, while enhanced air scouring of the bio-cord was shown to stabilize the production of solids for all substrata. This study represents the first performance and optimization study of the bio-cord technology for low-carbon nitrification and shows that air scouring of the substratum reduces sloughing events at elevated loading and that the bio-cord technology achieves stable kinetics above conventional rates of 1 g -N/m² d to values of 1.8 g -N/m² d.

Ammonium removal by native microbes and activated sludge within the Jialu River basin and the associated microbial community structures

To explore the availability of native microbes and activated sludge for ammonium removal, the native microbes and activated sludge in Jialu River basin were investigated in terms of ammonium-removing activities and their microbial communities using spectrophotometry and high-throughput sequencing. NH₄⁺-N and total nitrogen (TN) in the targeted river ranged from 2.45 ± 1.76 to 8.56 ± 2.54 mg/L and from 3.42 ± 2.79 to 13.49 ± 5.06 mg/L, respectively. Both the native microbes and activated sludge had strong ammonium-removing activities with the removal efficiencies of more than 94%. High-throughput sequencing results indicated that, after five batches of operation, the class Gammaproteobacteria (28.55%), Alphaproteobacteria (14.55%), Betaproteobacteria (13.89%), Acidobacteria (8.82%) and Bacilli (7.04%) were dominated in native community, and there was a predominance of Gammaproteobacteria (21.57%), Betaproteobacteria (16.33%), Acidobacteria (12.41%), Alphaproteobacteria (10.01%), Sphingobacteriia (6.92%) and Bacilli (6.66%) in activated sludge. These two microbial sources were able to remove ammonium, while activated sludge was more cost-effective.

Characterization of suspended bacteria from processing units in an advanced drinking water treatment plant of China

For the drinking water treatment plant (DWTP), the organic pollutant removal was the primary focus, while the suspended bacterial was always neglected. In this study, the suspended bacteria from each processing unit in a DWTP employing an ozone-biological activated carbon process was mainly characterized by using heterotrophic plate counts (HPCs), a flow cytometer, and 454-pyrosequencing methods. The results showed that an adverse changing tendency of HPC and total cell counts was observed in the sand filtration tank (SFT), where the cultivability of suspended bacteria increased to 34%. However, the cultivability level of other units stayed below 3% except for ozone contact tank (OCT, 13.5%) and activated carbon filtration tank (ACFT, 34.39%). It meant that filtration processes promoted the increase in cultivability of suspended bacteria remarkably, which indicated biodegrading capability. In the unit of OCT, microbial diversity indexes declined drastically, and the dominant bacteria were affiliated to Proteobacteria phylum (99.9%) and Betaproteobacteria class (86.3%), which were also the dominant bacteria in the effluent of other units. Besides, the primary genus was Limnohabitans in the effluents of SFT (17.4%) as well as ACFT (25.6%), which was inferred to be the crucial contributors for the biodegradable function in the filtration units. Overall, this paper provided an overview of community composition of each processing units in a DWTP as well as reference for better developing microbial function for drinking water treatment in the future.

Effect of the chemical composition of filter media on the microbial community in wastewater biofilms at different temperatures

This study investigates the microbial community composition in the biofilms grown on two different support media in fixed biofilm reactors for aerobic wastewater treatment, using next generation sequencing (NGS) technology. The chemical composition of the new type of support medium (TDR) was found to be quite different from the conventionally used support medium (stone). The analysis of 16S rRNA gene fragments recovered from the laboratory scale biofilm system show that biofilm support media and temperature conditions influence bacterial community structure and composition. Greater bacterial diversity was observed under each condition, primarily due to the large number of sequences available and sustenance of rare species. There were 6 phyla found, with the highest relative abundance shown by the phylum Proteobacteria (52.71%) followed by Bacteroidetes (33.33%), Actinobacteria (4.65%), Firmicutes, Verrucomicrobia (3.1%) and Chloroflex (>1%). The dataset showed 17 genera of bacterial populations to be commonly shared under all conditions, suggesting the presence of a core microbial community in the biofilms for wastewater treatment. However, some genera in the biofilms on TDR were observed in high proportions, which may be attributed to its chemical composition, explaining the improved level of wastewater treatment. The findings show that the structure of microbial communities in biofilm systems for wastewater treatment is affected by the properties of support matrix.

Impact of methionine on a partial-nitritation biofilter

It has been demonstrated that an anaerobic digestion process cannot attain an efficient removal of several amino acids, with methionine being one of the most persistent of these. Thus, the effect that methionine amino acid has over the partial-nitritation process with fixed-biofilm configuration in terms of performance and bacterial community dynamics has been investigated. With respect to the performance with no addition, 100 mg/L methionine loading decreased ammonium oxidation efficiency in 60% and 100% at concentrations of 300 and 500 mg/L methionine, respectively. Bacterial biomass sharply increased by 30, 65, and 230% with the addition of 100, 300, and 500 mg/L methionine, respectively. Bacterial community analysis showed that methionine addition supported the proliferation of a diversity of heterotrophic genera, such as Lysobacter and Micavibrio, and reduced the relative abundance of ammonium oxidizing genus Nitrosomonas. This research shows that the addition of methionine affects the performance of the partial-nitritation process. In this sense, amino acids can pose a threat for the of partial-nitritation process treating anaerobic digester supernatant at full-scale implementation.

Enhancement removal of endocrine-disrupting pesticides and nitrogen removal in a biofilm reactor coupling of biodegradable Phragmites communis and elastic filler for polluted source water treatment

The coupling of conventional elastic filler and solid carbon source of Phragmites communis (P. communis) as the biofilm support was applied in a biofilm system for treating polluted source water containing nitrogen and trace endocrine-disrupting pesticides (cypermethrin and chlorpyrifos). Results showed that removal efficiencies of TN and EDPs were improved with addition of 3.6kg P. communis/m(3) in the biofilm system. Meanwhile, the uniform distribution of P. communis favored simultaneously nitrogen and organics removal but not to trace EDPs compared with non-uniform distribution of P. communis. The biofilm on elastic filler was mainly responsible for the nitrification with NH4(+)-N oxidation efficiency of 82.9±1.5%. Poor nitrification with NH4(+)-N oxidation efficiency of 36.3±6.1% but effective denitrification with a TN removal efficiency of 56.5±2.0% were obtained by the biofilm on P. communis. Cypermethrin was mainly removed via adsorption and microbial degradation, and chlorpyrifos removal mostly depended on the microbial degradation in biofilm system.

Removal performance of nitrogen and endocrine-disrupting pesticides simultaneously in the enhanced biofilm system for polluted source water pretreatment

The removal performances of nitrogen and trace levels of endocrine-disrupting pesticides (cypermethrin and chlorpyrifos) were studied in the enhanced biofilm pretreatment system at various substrates concentrations and dissolve oxygen (DO) niches. No significant change of EDPs removal occurred with the increased feed of ammonia nitrogen in aerobic batch tests or nitrate in anaerobic batch reactors, but significantly enhanced via reed addition both in aerobic and anaerobic conditions. Simultaneously enhanced denitrification and EDPs removal were achieved in the anoxic niche with reed addition. The results of denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) indicated that new bands appeared, and some bands became more intense with the reed addition. Sequences analysis showed that the dominant species belonged to Methylophilaceae, Hyphomicrobium, Bacillus and Thauera, which were related to the nitrogen or EDPs removals. In addition, the growth of functional heterotrophic microbes may be promoted via reed addition.

Bacterial succession and degradative changes by biofilm on plastic medium for wastewater treatment

Biofilms contain a diverse range of microorganisms and their varying extracellular polysaccharides. The present study has revealed biofilm succession associated with degradative effects on plastic (polypropylene) and contaminants in sludge. The wet weight of biofilm significantly (p < 0.05) increased; from 0.23 ± 0.01 to 0.44 ± 0.01 g. Similarly, the dry weight of the biofilm increased from 0.02 to 0.05 g. Significant reduction in pathogens (E. coli and feacal coliforms) by MPN technique (>80%) and in chemical parameters (decrease in COD, BOD5 of 73.32 and 69.94%) representing diminution of organic pollutants. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) of plastic revealed carbon and oxygen contents, further surface analysis of plastic by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed emergence of profound bacterial growth on the surface. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy conforms its biotransformation under aerobic conditions after 8 weeks. New peaks developed at the region 1050 and 969 cm(-1) indicating CO and CC bond formation. Thus plastic with 6 weeks old aerobic biofilm (free of pathogens, max. weight, and OD, efficient COD & BOD removal ability) is suggested to be maintained in fixed biofilm reactors for wastewater treatment.

Simultaneous enhancement of organics and nitrogen removal in drinking water biofilm pretreatment system with reed addition

A novel drinking water biofilm pretreatment process with reed addition was established for enhancement of simultaneously organics and nitrogen removal. Results showed that nitrate removal efficiency was positively related with the influent C/N ratio, reaching to 87.8±2.8% at the C/N ratio of 4.7. However, the predicted trichloromethane (THM) levels based on total organic carbon (TOC) and UV254 were high with the increase of influent C/N ratio. Combined with the pollutants removal performance and microbial community variation, an appropriate C/N ratio via reed addition was determined at 2.2 for the continuous biofilm reactor. With adjustment of hydraulic retention time (HRT), the highest of nitrate removal efficiency (74.2±1.4%) and organics utilization efficiency (0.63 mg NO3--N mg(-1)TOC) were achieved at an optimum HRT of 18 h, with both low effluent NO3--N (0.88±0.03 mg l(-1)) and TOC (2.86±0.67 mg l(-1)).