Endocrine disrupting chemicals removal in an aerobic granular sludge reactor treating simulated saline wastewater

The occurrence of Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in the environment is a topic of concern. It is commonly accepted that the major source of EDCs to the environment is wastewater treatment plants effluents. Salinity is an additional common stress factor in wastewater treatment. Aerobic granular sludge (AGS) has a number of properties that make it more attractive than conventional biological systems for treatment of wastewater containing EDCs. In the present study, an AGS sequencing batch reactor adapted to salinity was operated for 140 days for treating synthetic saline wastewater containing 17β–estradiol (E2), 17α–ethinylestradiol (EE2) and bisphenol-A (BPA). E2 was removed by biodegradation. EE2 adsorption/desorption to the aerobic granules was observed. The increasing of BPA removal efficiency after bioaugmentation with a degrading bacterial strain shows that biodegradation was the removal mechanism. COD removal was not significantly affected by EDCs shock loads. Activity of ammonia oxidizing bacteria and nitrite oxidizing bacteria did not seem to be inhibited by the presence of EDCs. The activity of phosphate accumulating organisms was affected.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Bacterial strain rhodococcus sp. ED55 degrades endocrine disrupring chemicals in wastewater

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Rhodococcus sp. ED55: a bacterial strain with ability to degrade endocrine disrupting chemicals and potential for bioaugmentation

The occurrence of Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in the environment is a topic of concern. It is commonly accepted that the major source of EDCs to the environment is wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs’) effluents, due to the inefficiency of WWTPs to remove this kind of pollutants. A bacterial strain – Rhodococcus sp. ED55 was isolated from the sediments of a discharge point of a WWTP in Coloane, Macau, for its ability to degrade EDCs. The bacterium was able to biodegrade 17β–estradiol (E2), 17α–ethinylestradiol (EE2), bisphenol-A (BPA) and bisphenol-S (BPS) at different extents. Strain ED55 was able to completely degrade the supplied amount of E2 in few hours, both in synthetic medium and in real wastewater from a municipal WWTP (Parada, Maia – Portugal). Estrone (E1), 4OH-E1 and 4OH-E2 were identified as intermediate degradation metabolites and the metabolic pathway is under elucidation. Bioaugmentation with Rhodococcus sp. ED 55 significantly improved the natural attenuation of the compound in municipal wastewater in batch assays. The acute test with luminescent marine bacterium Vibrio fischeri revealed elimination of the toxicity of the treated effluent and the standardized yeast estrogenic (S-YES) assay with the recombinant strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae revealed decrease of estrogenic activity of samples. Rhodococcus sp. ED55 was applied in a strategy of an AGS sequencing batch reactor adapted to salinity, which was operated for treating a synthetic saline wastewater containing E2, EE2 and BPA. E2 was no longer detected in the bulk liquid after 10 min of aerobic reaction throughout reactor operation, suggesting that this compound was quickly removed by biodegradation. EE2 adsorption/desorption to the aerobic granules was observed. Removal of BPA significantly increased after bioaugmentation with Rhodococcus sp. ED55, showing that biodegradation was the governing removal mechanism. COD removal was not significantly affected by EDCs shock loads. Rhodococcus sp. ED55 can potentially be applied in bioaugmentation strategies for ameliorating treatment of wastewater contaminated with EDCs.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Rhodococcus sp. ED55: a bacterial strain with potential for application in wastewater treatment for effective removal of endocrine disruptors

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Ferrioxalate complexes as strategy to drive a photo-FENTON reaction at mild pH conditions: A case study on levofloxacin oxidation

The present study is about the use of ferrioxalate photoactive complexes as a strategy to drive a photo Fenton reaction at mild pH conditions, applied to the oxidation of antibiotic levofloxacin (LEV) in pure water and spiked in urban wastewater after secondary treatment. The oxidation ability of the solar photo Fenton mediated by ferrioxalate complexes (SPFF) was evaluated at different pH values (3.0 to 6.0) for an iron/oxalate molar ratio of 1:3 and using low iron contents (1.0 and 2.0 mg Fe3+ L-1). Additionally, the effect of LEV concentration (2-20 mg L-1), iron:oxalate molar ratio (1:3, 1:6 and 1:9), temperature (1545 degrees C), UVA irradiance (27.8-59.9 Wuv m(-2)), presence of inorganic ions (Cl-, SO42-, HCO3-, NH4+), radical scavengers (sodium azide, humic acid and D-mannitol), and others organic ligands, namely citrate and malate, on the SPFF method at pH 5.0 was also assessed. Although the conventional solar photo-Fenton (CSPF) reaction showed similar results to SPFF for pH values <= 4, an almost 3.3-fold and 5.7-fold increase in the LEV degradation rate at pH 5.0 and 6.0, respectively, were observed for SPFF when compared to CSPF. This is mainly attributed to the higher photoactivity and solubility of ferrioxalate complexes when compared with ferric ion-water complexes. On the other hand, ferrioxalate complexes exhibited higher photoactivity on LEV removal than ferricitrate and ferrimalate. The presence of phosphate ions in the urban wastewater affected negatively the reaction rate, mainly due to the precipitation of iron as FePO4(s), hence a H2O2/UVC process at different conditions was also explored as an alternative. A pilot-scale assay under natural solar irradiation showed similar results to the ones obtained in the lab-scale photoreactor. Oxalic, formic, citric, and tartronic acids were identified as residual acids in SPFF at pilot scale

Treatment of saline wastewater amended with endocrine disruptors by aerobic granular sludge: assessing performance and microbial community dynamics

An aerobic granular sludge (AGS) sequencing batch reactor (SBR) adapted to salinity (12gL-1 NaCl) was operated under alternating anaerobic-aerobic conditions for the treatment of synthetic saline wastewater containing endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), namely 17estradiol (E2), 17ethinylestradiol (EE2) and bisphenol-A (BPA). The SBR was intermittently fed with the EDCs at 2mgL-1 of each compound. E2 was completely biodegraded, with 60% to 80% removal attained anaerobically and the remaining quickly consumed under aeration. EE2 was sorbed onto the granular sludge biomass in the anaerobic period, but it was desorbed in subsequent cycles even when the compound was not supplied to the reactor. BPA removal was poor but improved after bioaugmentation with an EDCs degrading bacteria. EDCs shock loads did not significantly affect the COD removal nor the activity of ammonium- and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (AOB and NOB, respectively). In contrast, the activity of phosphate-accumulating organisms (PAOs) was affected, implying a decrease in P removal within the aerobic phase. AGS core microbiome grouped most bacteria belonging to the phylum Proteobacteria, followed by Bacteroidetes. The microbial profile showed that the introduction of the EDCs mixture increased the relative abundance of Chryseobacterium and Flavobacterium. AOB and NOB species were detected in the AGS biomass, with the latter showing lower relative abundance. Different PAOs, such as Rhodocyclus, Tetrasphaera and Gemmatimonas, were also part of the microbial community, but the addition of EDCs decreased significantly the relative abundance of Rhodocyclus. High microbial diversity was sustained over reactor operation, with the main bacterial groups responsible for nutrients and EDCs removal preserved in the AGS system. The results pointed to the maintenance of a core microbiome over reactor operation that may be related to the stability of the AGS process during EDCs loading.This study was supported in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES/Brasil) – Finance Code 001 and the other part was financed by National Funds from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT/Portugal) - through the project AGeNT - PTDC/BTA-BTA/31264/2017 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER 031264)and the project CBQF - UID/Multi/50016/2019info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio