Reverse osmosis pretreatment method for toxicity assessment of domestic wastewater using Vibrio qinghaiensis sp.-Q67

Luminescent bacterial test is a fast and sensitive method for acute toxicity assessment of water and wastewater. In this study, an improved toxicity testing method was developed using the freshwater luminescent bacteria Vibrio qinghaiensis sp.-Q67 that involved pretreatment of water samples with reverse osmosis (RO) to eliminate the interferences caused by nutrients in concentrated samples and to improve the reliability and sensitivity of the analysis. Because water samples contain low concentrations of several target toxic substances, rapid acute toxicity testing method that is commonly employed does not achieve enough sensitivity. The proposed RO pretreatment could effectively enrich organic and inorganic substances in water samples to enable a more effective and sensitive toxicity evaluation. The kinetic characteristics of toxicity of raw sewage and secondary effluent were evaluated based on the relative luminescence unit (RLU) curves and time-concentration-effect surfaces. It was observed that when the exposure time was prolonged to 8-h or longer, the bacteria reached the logarithmic growth stage. Hence, the stimulating effects of the coexisting ions (such as Na+, K+, NO3-) in the concentrated samples could be well eliminated. A 10-h exposure time in proposed Q67 test was found to quantitatively evaluate the toxicity of the organic and inorganic pollutants in the RO-concentrated samples. © 2013 Elsevier Inc

Characterization of preconcentrated domestic wastewater toward efficient bioenergy recovery: Applying size fractionation, chemical composition and biomethane potential assay.

Domestic wastewater (DWW) can be preconcentrated to facilitate energy recovery via anaerobic digestion (AD), following the concept of "carbon capture-anaerobic conversion-bioenergy utilization." Herein, real DWW and preconcentrated domestic wastewater (PDWW) were both subject to particle size fractionation (0.45-2000 μm). DWW is a type of low-strength wastewater (average COD of 440.26 mg/L), wherein 60% of the COD is attributed to the substances with particle size greater than 0.45 μm. Proteins, polysaccharides, and lipids are the major DWW components. PDWW with a high COD concentration of 2125.89 ± 273.71 mg/L was obtained by the dynamic membrane filtration (DMF) process. PDWW shows larger proportions of settleable and suspended fractions, and accounted for 63.4% and 33.8% of the particle size distribution, and 52.4% and 32.2% of the COD, respectively. The acceptable biomethane potential of 262.52 ± 11.86 mL CH4/g COD of PDWW indicates bioenergy recovery is feasible based on DWW preconcentration and AD

Fluorescence analysis of centralized water supply systems: Indications for rapid cross-connection detection and water quality safety guarantee.

Better insight into non-potable reclaimed water and drinking water can produce more reliable risk assessment and help to achieve sustainable water reuse in the long-term. This study illustrates the effectiveness of fluorescence excitation-emission matrix (EEM) for rapid cross-connection detection. Based on samples collected from three different sites of China, it is identified that the overall fluorescence intensity was 6-31 times of reclaimed to drinking water in water samples at all FRI regions. This is shown to be highly sensitive over conventional water quality parameters. Furthermore, based on parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC), humic acid and tryptophan are considered as the main components contributing to fluorescence both in secondary and tertiary effluents. Total fluorescence intensities as well as fluorescence peaks of EEM pairs were investigated. Under different mixing scenarios, it is found that the signal is distinguishable as low as 20% of reclaimed water. This study also offers possibility of exploring portable devices with identified fluorescence peaks in EEM regions for risk prevention and water quality monitoring at end user sites

Effects of powdered activated carbon addition on filtration performance and dynamic membrane layer properties in a hybrid DMBR process

© 2017 Elsevier B.V. A powdered activated carbon-dynamic membrane bioreactor (PAC-DMBR) was developed and used to treat domestic wastewater by dosing with 3 g/L PAC. The experimental results were compared with those of a control DMBR to investigate the filtration performance and various properties of the dynamic membrane (DM) layer. One flat-sheet DM module made of nylon mesh (pore size 75 μm) was used for effluent production at a high stable flux (50–100 L/m2 h) under a 10 cm water head by gravity flow, resulting in continuous operation cycles of 60–120 h. During the operation period, the PAC-DMBR showed enhanced removal efficiency of pollutants, higher stable membrane flux (10 L/m2 h more), lower filtration resistance (6.0–8.0 × 1010 m−1), quicker formation of the DM layer (within 5 min), and better DM layer regeneration after air backwashing. The DM layer in the PAC-DMBR showed a more porous and incompressible structure, because less extracellular polymeric substance and a portion of the biological PAC were incorporated into the DM layer formed as verified by the analytical results. Using high-throughput pyrosequencing technology, it was revealed that at the genus level the diversity of bacterial communities increased from 18 to 23 genera, while several genera that were favored in the PAC-assisted environment or were responsible for degrading complex organics were enriched. Moreover, the abundance of phylum Proteobacteria, which served as pioneer surface colonizers, was reduced in the PAC-DMBR. It was concluded that PAC addition could modify various aspects of the activated sludge and the DM layer properties, which affected the filtration behavior of the DM layer in the PAC-DMBR

Improvement of bioavailable carbon source and microbial structure toward enhanced nitrate removal by Tubifex tubifex

© 2018 Elsevier B.V. The research provides new insights into how T. tubifex affects microbe-available organic carbon transformation, microbial community, and related inorganic nitrogen transformation. With different T. tubifex densities under enriched NO3-N concentration with different C/N ratio, the groups with low and high T. tubifex abundance had 17.1% and 27.2% higher TOC concentrations compared to control group under C/N ratio of 3.0 and 2.0, respectively. According to the OC characteristics analyzed by GC–MS and EEM, the group with T. tubifex contained higher dissolved organic carbon (DOC) content and short-chain compounds. As the NO3-N concentration increased and C/N ratio decreased, the proportions of carboxylic acid derivatives (methyl acetate), sulfur-containing compounds, humic-like products and the emission of CO2 were enhanced with T. tubifex, which could be utilized by denitrifiers directly. The OC degradation was highly correlated with the effect of T. tubifex on microbial community and nutrient removal. The T. tubifex can increase OC transformed into sediment and change the microbial community similarity to that in their digestive system. According to the principal component analysis (PCA), the improved proportions of OC that available for microbes and altered microbial community with T. tubifex could enhance denitrification, which experienced a 21% higher denitrifiers and threefold increased NO3-N removal efficiency than that in control group

Nitrogen removal enhancement using lactic acid fermentation products from food waste as external carbon sources: Performance and microbial communities

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd In this study, nitrogen removal using the lactic acid fermentation products from food waste and other external chemical carbon sources (sodium acetate, sodium lactate and starch) was investigated. Similar to sodium acetate and lactate, the lactic acid-enriched fermentation liquid from food waste (FLFW) exhibited a high denitrification rate (5.5 mg NOx-N/(g-VSS h)) and potential (0.16 g NO3−-N/g COD), and could achieve high NH4+-N and total nitrogen (TN) removal efficiencies during long-term operation. Using FLFW as supplementary carbon sources reduced the extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) content, improved the settleability and achieved a satisfactory biomass yield of activated sludge. Additionally, the increased microbial metabolic activity and bacterial community diversity and the accumulation of unique bacteria in the activated sludge cultured with FLFW further promoted the organics utilization rate and nitrogen removal efficiency, indicating that the FLFW prepared from solid waste was an ideal carbon source for wastewater treatment

Factors governing the pre-concentration of wastewater using forward osmosis for subsequent resource recovery

This study demonstrated a technique using forward osmosis (FO) to pre-concentrate the organic matter in raw wastewater, thereby transforming low strength wastewater into an anaerobically digestible solution. The chemical oxygen demand (COD) of raw wastewater was concentrated up to approximately eightfold at a water recovery of 90%. Thus, even low strength wastewater could be pre-concentrated by FO to the range suitable for biogas production via anaerobic treatment. Excessive salinity accumulation in pre-concentrated wastewater was successfully mitigated by adopting ionic organic draw solutes, namely, sodium acetate, and EDTA-2Na. These two draw solutes are also expected to benefit the digestibility of the pre-concentrated wastewater compared to the commonly used draw solute sodium chloride. Significant membrane fouling was observed when operating at 90% water recovery using raw wastewater. Nevertheless, membrane fouling was reversible and was effectively controlled by optimising the hydrodynamic conditions of the cross-flow FO system

Free nitrous acid-based nitrifying sludge treatment in a two-sludge system enhances nutrient removal from low-carbon wastewater

© 2017 Elsevier Ltd A new method to enhance nutrient removal from low carbon-wastewater was developed. The method consists of a two-sludge system (i.e., an anaerobic-anoxic-oxic reactor coupled to a nitrifying reactor (N-SBR)) and a nitrifying-sludge treatment unit using free nitrous acid (FNA). Initially, 65.1 ± 2.9% in total nitrogen removal and 69.6 ± 3.4% in phosphate removal were obtained without nitrite accumulation. When 1/16 of the nitrifying sludge was daily treated with FNA at 1.1 mg N/L for 24 h, ∼28.5% of nitrite was accumulated in the N-SBR, and total nitrogen and phosphate removal increased to 72.4 ± 3.2% and 76.7 ± 2.9%, respectively. About 67.8% of nitrite was accumulated at 1.9 mg N/L FNA, resulting in 82.9 ± 3.8% in total nitrogen removal and 87.9 ± 3.5% in phosphate removal. Fluorescence in-situ hybridization analysis showed that FNA treatment reduced the abundance of nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB), especially that of Nitrospira sp

Contribution of antibiotics to the fate of antibiotic resistance genes in anaerobic treatment processes of swine wastewater: A review.

Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in water environment have become a global health concern. Swine wastewater is widely considered to be one of the major contributors for promoting the proliferation of ARGs in water environments. This paper comprehensively reviews and discusses the occurrence and removal of ARGs in anaerobic treatment of swine wastewater, and contributions of antibiotics to the fate of ARGs. The results reveal that ARGs' removal is unstable during anaerobic processes, which negatively associated with the presence of antibiotics. The abundance of bacteria carrying ARGs increases with the addition of antibiotics and results in the spread of ARGs. The positive relationship was found between antibiotics and the abundance and transfer of ARGs in this review. However, it is necessary to understand the correlation among antibiotics, ARGs and microbial communities, and obtain more knowledge about controlling the dissemination of ARGs in the environment

Performance of constructed wetlands and associated mechanisms of PAHs removal with mussels

© 2018 Elsevier B.V. The role of mussels in laboratory-scale constructed wetlands (CWs) where wastewater was contaminated with five typical polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) (three 3-ring PAHs and two 4-ring PAHs) was investigated in this study. The CWs performance and PAHs removal mechanisms were well studied. Results indicated that these five PAHs improved removal efficiencies of NO3-N but in the case of NH4-N accumulation occurred. Of the five added PAHs, the 4-ring PAHs were more refractory with higher concentrations in effluent than 3-ring PAHs. By monitoring the five PAHs concentration in water, mussels had excellent removal efficiency of the five PAHs (97%). According to the mass balance calculation, mussels promoted plant uptake of five PAHs, contributing 15.2% of five PAHs removal in CWs. The PAHs could also accumulate in mussels through ingested substrate. Thus, mussels presented a positive correlation with five PAHs purification at a depth of 0–10 cm in substrate, which was 34.7 μg/kg lower than the control group. Due to the purification and enhanced aerated degradation, mussels performed better in removing 3-ring PAHs in substrate, decreasing 8.3% for 3-ring PAHs compared to the control. A positive correlation between five PAHs addition and nirS, nrfA genes was observed. However, PAHs showed negative impact on nitrifying bacteria (amoA). The significant correlations between mussels and five PAHs made it possible to improve CWs for PAHs treatment with aquatic faunas