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This study evaluated the effectiveness of biochar addition against high organic loading shock (OLS) of 80 kg COD/m 3 /d in up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactors (R1 with biochar; R2 without biochar). After OLS of 24 h, R2 suffered the irreversible acidification (pH of 5.42 ± 0.07) with low biogas production of 0.08 ± 0.01 m 3 /kg COD/d. In contrast, the biogas production in R1 restored rapidly to 0.33 ± 0.04 m 3 /kg COD/d, and effluent pH in R1 returned to 7.01 ± 0.22. With addition of biochar, potential direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET) partners, including volatile fatty acids (VFAs)-oxidizing bacteria (Bacteroidetes, Smithella, Desulfovibrio, Geobacter) and methanogens (Methanosaeta, Methanosarcina) were enriched in R1, which were conductive to maintain the balance of acidogenesis and methanogenesis. Moreover, the retention of Methanosaeta and Methanosarcina coupled with biochar maintained the structural stability of granular sludge in R1 under the pressure of OLS and VFAs, which guaranteed the stability of anaerobic system., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

For better understanding the role of magnetite in methanation of different substrates, two up-flow anaerobic sludge bed reactors (RM with magnetite; RS with silica) were built using acetate (stage I), propionate + butyrate (stage II), and sucrose (stage III) as the substrates, respectively. RM reactor showed better COD removal efficiency and adaptability to different substrate impacts. More extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) were produced for anaerobic sludge granulation, and the sludge in RM had better intensity, hydrophobicity and electroactivity compared with those in RS. Interestingly, magnetite had different promoting effects on methanogenic degradation of different substrates, and magnetite facilitated different syntrophic partners, like Desulfovibrio, Smithella, unidentified Clostridiates and Methanosaeta in different stages. The strengthening factor of biogas production from sucrose was the highest (1.23 ± 0.03), and analysis of key enzyme activities indicated that the potential magnetite-induced direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET) improved the process between the glycolysis, oxidation of pyruvate and CO 2 -dependent methanogenesis., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Suspended floc and fixed biofilm are two commonly applied strategies for heterotrophic denitrification in wastewater treatment. These two strategies use different carbon sources and reside within different ecological niches for microbial aggregation, which were hypothesized to show distinct microbial structures and metabolic fitness. We surveyed three floc reactors and three biofilm reactors for denitrification and determined if there were distinct microbial aggregations. Multiple molecular omics approaches were used to determine the microbial community composition, co-occurrence network and metabolic pathways. Proteobacteria was the dominating and most active phylum among all samples. Carbon source played an important role in shaping the microbial community composition while the distribution of functional protein was largely influenced by salinity. We found that the topological network features had different ecological patterns and that the microorganisms in the biofilm reactors had more nodes but less interactions than those in floc reactors. The large niche differences in the biofilm reactors explained the observed high microbial diversity, functional redundancy and resulting high system stability. We also observed a lower proportion of denitrifiers and higher resistance to oxygen and salinity perturbation in the biofilm reactors than the floc reactors. Our findings support our hypothesis that niche differences caused a distinct microbial structure and increased microbial ecology distribution, which has the potential to improve system efficiency and stability., (Copyright © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

According to unique growth characteristics of various environmental microorganism specially with different substrates and their levels, aerobic sludge granulation are studied under different operation mode of influent organic loading rate (OLR), and the EPS component, sludge surface characters and functional microbes are analyzed to achieve a novel process for stable sludge granulation. Results showed that activated sludge cultivated under gradient influent OLR decreasing from 5.5 to 3.5 kgCOD m -3  d -1 achieved complete granulation with average size of 438 μm and exopolysaccharide (PS) to protein (PN) ratio over 2.0. Meanwhile, these granules had excellent flocculability and hydrophobicity with Zeta potential and contact angle of -15 mV and 110°, respectively. Principal component analysis (PCA) illustrated that microbes with function of EPS secretion enriched with decreased OLR regulation for their suitable specific growth characteristics, then promoted other microbes aggregation and sludge granulation along with the improvement of cellular surface characters and microbial niche., (Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

To enhance the startup and efficient simultaneous nitrification and denitrification for sewage treatment, sequencing batch biofilm reactors (SBBRs) partially coupled with rice husk were established and operated under various intermittent micro-aeration cycles (IMCs) and COD/N ratios under oxygen-limiting intermittent aeration conditions. Experimental results showed that the increase of IMCs with non-aeration/micro-aeration mode of (8 h/4 h) 1 to (2 h/1 h) 4 in a 12 h-cycle accelerated the startup performance and improved NH 4 + -N and COD removal. NH 4 + -N, TN and COD removal efficiencies were 98.7 ± 0.9, 89.2 ± 5.2 and 82.9 ± 6.7% at COD/N ratio of 7.6 with the highest IMCs in SBBR, respectively. Higher TN removal efficiencies of 87.2 ± 4.0 and 58.1 ± 3.5% were also achieved at lower COD/N ratio of 5.6 and 2.8, respectively. In SBBRs with various IMCs, facultative denitrifier like genus Acinetobacter and solid-phase denitrifier belonging to Comamonadaceae family were enriched. However, aerobic denitrifiers with function of heterotrophic nitrification like Paracoccus were favored to enrich under higher IMCs condition, and more anoxic denitrifiers like sulfur-based autotrophic denitrifier Thiothrix and heterotrophic denitrifiers like Pseudomonas and Methyloversatilis were observed at lower IMCs condition. Autotrophic nitrifier (Nitrosomonas and Nitrosipra) and heterotrophic nitrifiers both contributed to the efficient nitrification.

In this study, bioelectrochemical-upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (BES-UASB) system was developed for treatment of 2,4-dichloronitrobenzen (DClNB) containing wastewater to investigate the effect of external voltage with different supplying modes. Results showed that 2,4-dichloroaniline (DClAN) was under detection limit in R1 (applied with intermittent voltage) and R2 (applied with continuous voltage) when the DClNB loading increased from 25 to 100gm 3 d -1 (hydraulic retention time (HRT) was decreased from 24 to 6h) while sudden accumulation of DClAN (1.7mgL -1 ) was observed in R0 (control). Dechlorination efficiency (DE) decreased to 32.7%, 45.0% and 45.3% in R0, R1 and R2 when HRT was further shortened to 4h. Microbial community analysis indicated the significant enrichment of dechlorination-related species in R1 and R2 compared with R0, e.g., Dehalobacter and Dehalococcoides. In summary, the BES-UASB system with intermittent voltage is an alternative process for efficient treatment of DClNB containing wastewater, and the energy input was reduced markedly., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In this study, two anaerobic membrane bioreactors (AnMBRs) were operated for 150days to treat bamboo industry wastewater (BIWW), and one of them was enhanced with bamboo charcoal (B-AnMBR). During the steady period, average chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiencies of 94.5±2.9% and 89.1±3.1% were achieved in B-AnMBR and AnMBR, respectively. The addition of bamboo charcoal (BC) increased the amount of biomass and improved the performance of the systems. A higher biogas production and methane yield were also observed in B-AnMBR. Regarding the issue of membrane fouling, BC lowered the soluble microbial product (SMP) content by approximately 62.73mg/L and decreased the membrane resistance, thereby mitigating membrane fouling. Analysis of the microbial communities demonstrated that BC increased the microbial diversity and promoted the activity of Methanosaeta, Methanospirillum, and Methanobacterium, which are dominant in methane production., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

A microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) combined with an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor was operated to degrade p-chloronitrobenzenes (p-ClNB) effectively. The results indicated that p-ClNB was transformed to p-chloroaniline (p-ClAn) and then reduced via dechlorination pathways. In the MEC-UASB coupled system, p-ClNB, p-ClAn removal efficiency and dechlorination efficiency reached 99.63±0.37%, 40.39±9.26% and 32.16±8.12%, respectively, which was significantly improved in comparison with the control UASB system. In addition, the coupled system could maintain appropriate pH and promote anaerobic sludge granulation to exert a positive effect on reductive transformation of p-ClNB. PCR-DGGE experiment and 454 pyrophosphate sequencing analysis indicated that applied voltage would significantly influence the succession of microbial community and promote oriented enrichment of the functional bacteria, which could be the underlying reasons for the improved performance. This study demonstrated that MEC-UASB coupled system had a promising application prospect to remove the recalcitrant pollutants effectively., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The hydraulic shear acts as an important selection pressure in aerobic sludge granulation. The effects of the hydraulic shear rate and reactor configuration on structural characteristics of aerobic granule in view of the hydromechanics. The hydraulic shear analysis was proposed to overcome the limitation of using superficial gas velocity (SGV) to express the hydraulic shear stress. Results showed that the stronger hydraulic shear stress with SGV above 2.4 cm s(-1) promoted the microbial aggregation, and favoured the structural stability of the granular sludge. According to the hydraulic shear analysis, the total shear rate reached (0.56-2.31)×10(5) s(-1) in the granular reactor with a larger ratio of height to diameter (H/D), and was higher than that in the reactor with smaller H/D, where the sequencing airlift bioreactor with smaller H/D had a high total shear rate under the same SGV. Results demonstrated that the granular reactor could provide a stronger hydraulic shear stress which promotes the formation and structural stability of aerobic granules.

The combined zero-valent iron (ZVI) and upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) process is established for the treatment of chloronitrobenzenes (ClNBs) wastewater, and the succession of microbial community and its enhanced mechanism are investigated in the study. Results showed that compared with the control UASB (R1), the stable COD removal, ClNBs transformation, and dechlorination occurred in the combined system (R2) when operated at influent COD and 3,4-Dichloronitrobenzene (3,4-DClNB) loading rates of 4200-7700 g m(-3) d(-1) and 6.0-70.0 g m(-3) d(-1), and R2 had the better shock resistance and buffering capacity for the anaerobic acidification. The dechlorination for the intermediate products of p-chloroanaline (p-ClAn) to analine (AN) occurred in R2 reactor after 45 days, whereas it did not occur in R1 after a long-term operation. The novel ZVI-based anaerobic granular sludge (ZVI-AGS) was successfully developed in the combined system, and higher microbial activities including ClNB transformation and H2/CH4 production were achieved simultaneously. The dominant bacteria were closely related to the groups of Megasphaera, Chloroflexi, and Clostridium, and the majority of archaea were correlated with the groups of Methanosarcinalesarchaeon, Methanosaetaconcilii, and Methanothrixsoehngenii, which are capable of reductively dechlorinating PCB, HCB, and TCE in anaerobic niche and EPS secretion., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The laboratory-scale upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor equipped with a pair of bioelectrodes was established for the enhancement of p-chloronitrobenzene (p-ClNB) reductive transformation via the electrolysis. Results showed that a stable COD removal efficiency over 99% and high p-ClNB transformation rate of 0.328 h(-1) were achieved in the bioelectrode-UASB coupled system with influent COD and p-ClNB loading rates of 2.1-4.2 kg COD m(-3)d(-1) and 60 gm(-3)d(-1), respectively. The bioelectrodes were supplied with a voltage of 2.5-5.0 V and the effective current was above 2 mA, which resulted in a continuous supply of H2. Compared with the traditional UASB reactor (R1), the production of H2 was promoted in the bioelectrode-UASB coupled system (R2), and was consumed as an internal electron donor for p-ClNB reductive transformation by anaerobic microbes simultaneously. Furthermore, the cyclic voltammetry curve (CV) analysis of biocathodes showed a positive shift in the reductive peak potential and a dramatic increase in the reductive peak current, which demonstrated the catalytic reduction of p-ClNB by biocathode in the combined system., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In recent years, aerobic granular sludge technology has demonstrated significant advantages in areas such as the sludge-water separation, residual sludge minimization, simultaneous biological nitrogen and phosphorus removal, and toxic organic compounds degradation in biological wastewater treatment. However, the critical control factors and their relation during sludge granulation have not been revealed indeed, and the stability of aerobic granular sludge is still not good. The Gray's correlation analysis was used to investigate the relationship of aerobic granular characteristics and control factors in the study. Results showed that the organic loading rate, hydraulic shear stress, and sludge settling time were the major factors affecting the aerobic sludge granulation, and the associated regulating strategy was important for the stabilization of granular sludge system. Based on above results, the mechanism of aerobic sludge granulation was proposed, and it was expected to favor the application of aerobic granular sludge technology.

The formation and characterization of the aerobic 4-chloroaniline-degrading granules in the three column-type sequencing batch reactors were investigated in this paper. The granular sludge was observed since 15 days after start-up in R2 and R3 which had the high ratio of height to diameter (H/D). Since then and within the subsequent 75 days, the granulation of aerobic sludge was apparently developed by the decreased settling time and gradually increased 4-chloroaniline (4-ClA) concentration to above 400 mg.L(-1) in R1 to R3. The aerobic granules tended to be mature in all reactors continuously operated with 4-ClA loading rates of around 800 g.m(-3).d(-1), and the removal efficiencies of chemical oxygen demand, total nitrogen, and 4-ClA were maintained above 93%, 70%, and 99.9%, respectively. Mature aerobic granules in R1 to R3 featured with the average diameter of 0.78, 1.68, and 1.25 mm, minimal settling velocity of 20.5, 70.1 and 66.6 m.h(-1), specific 4-ClA degradation rates of 0.14, 0.21, and 0.27 g.gVSS(-1).d(-1), and the ratio of proteins to polysaccharides of 8.2, 10.8, and 13.7 mg.mg(-1), respectively. This study demonstrates that the reactor with a high H/D ratio and internal circulation favors the granulation and stabilization of aerobic sludge.

Conductive iron oxides (CIO) have been proved recently to facilitate the anaerobic microbial syntrophy based on the direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET) in batch experiments. However, the effect of CIO was always insignificant in anaerobic digestion (AD) reactor especially when the DIET-based syntrophic partners were absent. In this study, the effect of magnetite on performance of AD system with sucrose as a sole carbon source was investigated, but limited enhancement was achieved during the first 36-day operation. The short-term effect of ethanol addition was further studied in the magnetite-amended AD reactor, and results showed that the AD reactor with 10gFe/L micro-sized magnetite (R3) achieved higher performance of COD removal and methane proportion compared with the other reactors (R1 without magnetite; R2 with 2gFe/L micro-sized magnetite; R4 with 2gFe/L nano-sized magnetite). Meanwhile, the pyridoxine in extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) and conductivity of anaerobic sludge from R3 increased more significantly than those of the others. Analysis of high-throughput sequencing indicated that the abundance of archaea increased in sludge from R3 and Methanosarcina responsible for DIET was dominant (63.64%). Additionally, the abundance of potential electroactive bacteria Chloroflexi in R3 was 7.57-fold, 3.61-fold and 7.37-fold as that of R1, R2 and R4, respectively. These results demonstrated that the electroactive microbes and methanogens could be enriched efficiently in anaerobic sludge via synergetic effect of magnetite addition and ethanol short-term stimulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A high-rate degradation of 4-chloroaniline (4-ClA) was achieved by developing mixed-culture microbial granules under aerobic conditions in a sequencing airlift bioreactor (SABR). An essential step in this process was the enrichment of the biomass with improved setting characteristics and high 4-ClA degradation activity by manipulating combined hydraulic and microbial selection pressures via stepwise increases in 4-ClA loading. The seed sludge was conditioned over a 15-day acclimation period to allow the biomass to adapt to the presence of 4-ClA and the preferred short-settling time. Over the subsequent two months, aerobic granular sludge was developed by decreasing the settling time and gradually increasing the 4-ClA loading, and glucose/CH3COONa was used to facilitate the growth of the 4-ClA-fed biomass. High specific degradation rates of more than 0.27ggVSS−1 d−1 were sustained for 4-ClA concentrations above 400mgL−1. At concentrations as high as (8.18±0.06)gL−1, 4-ClA was completely removed, and the biomass concentration was maintained. Degradation kinetics for all tests was described well by the typical substrate-inhibition pattern predicted by the Haldane equation. The aerobic granule primarily degraded 4-ClA via the meta-cleavage pathway. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A solid Phragmites communis ( P. communis ) decomposition results showed that the nutrient releasing rate was fast in the initial week with the main nutrients of organics and ammonia. P. communis addition of 0.4 kg m −3 and 1.2 kg m −3 in biofilm reactors with elastic filler was then established, respectively. The rapidly released dissolved nutrients in the initial week were helpful for the fast startup of biofilm reactors for simultaneous nitrification and denitrification (SND). The TN removal efficiencies reached above 60% in the reactor added 0.4 kg m −3 P. communis was delayed 1 week. The gradually released carbon favored to denitrification in long-term operation. Results also showed that the biofilm attached on the elastic filler was significantly linked to nitrification and the biofilm formed on P. communis was mostly related to denitrification. Thus, coupling of P. communis and elastic filler is helpful for simultaneous removal of nitrogen and organic matters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 3.6 kg 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 NH 4 + -N oxidation efficiency of 82.9 ± 1.5%. Poor nitrification with NH 4 + -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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The selective sludge discharge mode was studied in the aerobic granular sludge reactor for improving the long-term stability of aerobic granular sludge process. Results showed that the nitrogen removal performance was obviously improved with the preliminary granulation of the bioreactor at sludge settling time of 1min after 15days. After the formation of fine granular sludge, 5–10% volume of the total granular sludge was discharged for the sludge retention time (SRT) controlling, and the removal efficiencies of and TN reached 95.9±2.0% and 75.3±3.0% at the SRTTotal of 5.3±0.4days, SRTGranules of 9.9±0.9days and SRTFlocs of 2.7±0.5days, respectively. The granular rate and average granular diameter of the bioreactor were stabilized at 80±5.0% and 2.3±0.3mm, respectively. The results demonstrated that a long SRT of granular sludge leads easily into the deterioration of aerobic granule, and an appropriate selective sludge discharge mode favors the stability of aerobic granular sludge process via the discharge of proportional aging granular sludge and retention of enough new-born flocs. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The reaction kinetics of the degradation of ClAs and AN by aerobic granules were studied in a stable sequencing airlift bioreactor (SABR). Results showed that the degradation of ClAs and AN by aerobic granules followed the Haldane equation. The maximum substrate degradation rates (V max) for different pollutants were as follows: AN>4-ClA>2-ClA>3-ClA>3,4-DClA, and the order of inhibition constant (K i) was AN>3-ClA>4-ClA>2-ClA>3,4-DClA. The biodegradabilities of ClAs and AN was well relevance to their spatial parameters and thermodynamic coefficients. At the same time, the values of V max and K i increased along with the granular diameter (peaked at 1.25–2.0mm), and then K i increased but V max decreased. The results demonstrated that the formation of aerobic granule favours enhancing the degradability of toxic organic compounds, and controlling the granular diameter is important for optimising the performance of bioreactors. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Increasing studies indicate that magnetite addition could accelerate the methanogenesis via enhancing direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET)-based anaerobic syntrophy. However, magnetite is found to run off in continuous bioreactor, and the effect of magnetite loss on syntrophic aggregates is still underreported. In this study, two EGSB reactors (RM with magnetite-enhanced sludge, and RB as a control) were operated to investigate the magnetite behavior in continuous bioreactor and the corresponding response of syntrophic aggregates. Results showed that magnetite in RM was washed out gradually in form of iron ions, and a slightly acidic niche was supposed to be the major cause. Nevertheless, candidate DIET partners like Geobacter and Methanothrix along with syntrophic volatile fatty acids (VFAs)-degrading microbes were enriched in RM. In addition, the improved redox activity of extracellular polymeric substance (EPS), higher sludge conductivity and electron transport activity suggested that the DIET ability of sludge in RM was still enhanced, which favors the syntrophic metabolism of VFAs. Interestingly, syntrophic partners were loosely combined under the condition of high organic loading rate (OLR) in the presence of magnetite, but with gradual loss of magnetite, dense and active anaerobic granular sludge (AGS) was formed in RM. This study provided a comprehensive understanding of magnetite behavior in continuous bioreactor and the response of syntrophic aggregates. The robust DIET-based syntrophy after magnetite adding could favor the high-efficient anaerobic wastewater treatment and resource recovery in the future, and further investigations on magnetite resupply and the mechanism of magnetite enriching candidate DIET partners are recommended. Image 1 • Dissolution and loss of magnetite was observed in continuous anaerobic reactor. • Magnetite addition enriched DIET partners and enhanced the metabolism of VFAs. • High EPS redox ability and conductivity of magnetite-enhanced sludge favored DIET. • Dense and active AGS was formed in RM with gradual loss of magnetite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]