An enriched ammonia-oxidizing microbiota enables high removal efficiency of ammonia in antibiotic production wastewater.

High ammonia concentration hinders the efficient treatment of antibiotic production wastewater (APW). Developing effective ammonia oxidation wastewater treatment strategies is an ideal approach for facilitating APW treatment. Compared with traditional nitrification strategies, the partial nitrification process is more eco-friendly, less energy-intensive, and less excess sludge. The primary limiting factor of the partial nitrification process is increasing ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) while decreasing nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB). In this study, an efficient AOB microbiota (named AF2) was obtained via enrichment of an aerobic activated sludge (AS0) collected from a pharmaceutical wastewater treatment plant. After a 52-day enrichment of AS0 in 250 mL flasks, the microbiota AE1 with 69.18% Nitrosomonas microorganisms was obtained. Subsequent scaled-up cultivation in a 10 L fermenter led to the AF2 microbiota with 59.22% Nitrosomonas. Low concentration of free ammonia (FA, < 42.01 mg L-1) had a negligible effect on the activity of AF2, and the nitrite-nitrogen accumulation rate (NAR) of AF2 was 98% when FA concentration was 42.01 mg L-1. The specific ammonia oxidation rates (SAORs) at 30 °C and 15 °C were 3.64 kg NH4+-N·kg MLVSS-1·d-1 and 1.43 kg NH4+-N·kg MLVSS-1·d-1 (MLVSS: mixed liquor volatile suspended solids). The SAOR was 0.52 kg NH4+-N·kg MLVSS-1·d-1 when the NaCl concentration was increased from 0 to 20 g L-1, showing that AF2 functioning was stable in a high-level salt environment. The ammonia oxidation performance of AF2 was verified by treating abamectin and lincomycin production wastewater. The NARs of AF2 used for abamectin and lincomycin production wastewater treatment were >90% and the SAORs were 2.39 kg NH4+-N·kg MLVSS-1·d-1 and 0.54 kg NH4+-N·kg MLVSS-1·d-1, respectively, which was higher than the traditional biological denitrification process. In summary, AF2 was effective for APW treatment via enhanced ammonia removal efficiency, demonstrating great potential for future industrial wastewater treatment.

Responses of microbial community and antibiotic resistance genes to co-existence of chloramphenicol and salinity.

In recent years, the risk from environmental pollution caused by chloramphenicol (CAP) has emerged as a serious concern worldwide, especially for the co-selection of antibiotic resistance microorganisms simultaneously exposed to CAP and salts. In this study, the multistage contact oxidation reactor (MCOR) was employed for the first time to treat the CAP wastewater under the co-existence of CAP (10-80 mg/L) and salinity (0-30 g/L NaCl). The CAP removal efficiency reached 91.7% under the co-existence of 30 mg/L CAP and 10 g/L NaCl in the influent, but it fluctuated around 60% with the increase of CAP concentration and salinity. Trichococcus and Lactococcus were the major contributors to the CAP and salinity shock loads. Furthermore, the elevated CAP and salinity selection pressures inhibited the spread of CAP efflux pump genes, including cmlA, tetC, and floR, and significantly affected the composition and abundance of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). As the potential hosts of CAP resistance genes, Acinetobacter, Enterococcus, and unclassified_d_Bacteria developed resistance against high osmotic pressure and antibiotic environment using the efflux pump mechanism. The results also revealed that shifting of potential host bacteria significantly contributed to the change in ARGs. Overall, the co-existence of CAP and salinity promoted the enrichment of core genera Trichococcus and Lactococcus; however, they inhibited the proliferation of ARGs. KEY POINTS: • Trichococcus and Lactococcus were the core bacteria related to CAP biodegradation • Co-existence of CAP and salinity inhibited proliferation of cmlA, tetC, and floR • The microorganism resisted the CAP using the efflux pump mechanism.

Advances in Studies on Microbiota Involved in Nitrogen Removal Processes and Their Applications in Wastewater Treatment.

The discharge of excess nitrogenous pollutants in rivers or other water bodies often leads to serious ecological problems and results in the collapse of aquatic ecosystems. Nitrogenous pollutants are often derived from the inefficient treatment of industrial wastewater. The biological treatment of industrial wastewater for the removal of nitrogen pollution is a green and efficient strategy. In the initial stage of the nitrogen removal process, the nitrogenous pollutants are converted to ammonia. Traditionally, nitrification and denitrification processes have been used for nitrogen removal in industrial wastewater; while currently, more efficient processes, such as simultaneous nitrification-denitrification, partial nitrification-anammox, and partial denitrification-anammox processes, are used. The microorganisms participating in nitrogen pollutant removal processes are diverse, but information about them is limited. In this review, we summarize the microbiota participating in nitrogen removal processes, their pathways, and associated functional genes. We have also discussed the design of efficient industrial wastewater treatment processes for the removal of nitrogenous pollutants and the application of microbiome engineering technology and synthetic biology strategies in the modulation of the nitrogen removal process. This review thus provides insights that would help in improving the efficiency of nitrogen pollutant removal from industrial wastewater.

Treatment of real sodium saccharin wastewater using multistage contact oxidation reactor and microbial community analysis.

In this study, multistage contact oxidation reactor (MCOR) with a novel carrier was used for treatment of high-strength sodium saccharin wastewater (SSW) under stepwise increasing salinities from 1.0% to 8.0%. The results revealed that MCOR could effectively remove the organic pollutants from SSW when influent salinity was no more than 4.5%; the chemical oxygen demand (COD) and NH4+-N removal efficiency under the optimal operating parameters ranged up to 91.5% and 92.7%, respectively. Microbial diversity analysis illustrated that the dominant microbes in SSW treatment system were substantially distinct at different salinities. Pseudomonas was predominant at salinity of 3.5%, while Marinobacterium (a species involved in COD removal) was enriched to a greater degree at salinity of 7.0%. CCA suggested that salinity was the main factor for dynamic evolutions of microbial community structures. This work demonstrated that MCOR is an appropriate method for the treatment of high-strength, high-salinity SSW.

[Nitrogen Removal Performance of a Sulfur/Pyrite Autotrophic Denitrification System].

In order to search for an economical, rapid, and highly efficient nitrogen removal process for sewage, a sulfur/pyrite packed column reactor was fed with low C/N municipal sewage. The effects of temperature, the sulfur-to-pyrite volume ratio, and hydraulic retention time (HRT) on nitrogen removal were studied. The results showed that with an influent total nitrogen (TN) of 40 mg·L-1, the optimal HRT of the No.1 reactor was 2.5 h, and the removal rate and effluent concentration of TN were stable at 72.2% and 10.55 mg·L-1, respectively. The optimal HRT of the No.2 reactor was 3.5 h, and the removal rate and effluent concentration of TN were stable at 67.8% and 12.90 mg·L-1, respectively. The optimal HRT of the No.3 reactor was 3.5 h, and the removal rate and effluent concentration of TN were stable at 60.6% and 15.00 mg·L-1, respectively. The sulfur/pyrite autotrophic denitrification system starts faster than the pyrite autotrophic denitrification system. Its nitrogen removal rate decreased with decreasing sulfur-to-pyrite volume ratio. The nitrogen removal performance of the system is not sensitive to temperature, and the denitrification performance is better than that of the system with pyrite alone as the sulfur source. The main functional bacteria in the system are Sulfurimonas and Thiobacillus, and the proportion of the sum of these two bacteria in the three reactors decreased from No.1 to No.3.

Cometabolic degradation of low-strength coking wastewater and the bacterial community revealed by high-throughput sequencing.

Cometabolism technology was employed to degrade low-strength coking wastewater (CWW) in Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR). The bacterial community compositions were monitored by high-throughput sequencing. Cometabolic substrate effectively improved the chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency in glucose-added system (A1) compared to glucose-free system (A0). Meanwhile, A1 exhibited larger biomass, better settlement performance, and higher dehydrogenase activity (DHA). More importantly, high-throughput sequencing revealed that dominant populations in A1 were quite different with A0. Thauera (9.27%), Thermogutta (7.58%), and Defluviimonas (4.6%) began to enrich in A1 after cometabolic substrate supplement. Especially, Thauera, as the most dominant populations in Al, could degrade a wide spectrum of aromatic compounds, which may contribute to the better system performance. This work would provide a novel option to treat low-strength CWW, discern the relationship between bacterial community and CWW quality, and further explore the cometabolic degradation through bacterial community structures.