Efficient cooling tower operation at alkaline pH for the control of Legionella pneumophila and other pathogenic genera.

Efficient control of pathogenic bacteria, specifically Legionella pneumophila, is one of the main concerns when operating industrial cooling towers. Common practices to limit proliferation involves use of disinfectants, leading to formation of disinfection by-product and increase in water corrosiveness. A disinfectant-free Legionella control method would make the industry more environmentally friendly. A pilot-scale cooling tower (1 m3/h) operated with demineralized water was used to investigate the potential of high-pH conditioning as a disinfectant-free alternative for control of L. pneumophila and other pathogens. One control experiment was performed under standard full-scale operation involving sodium hypochlorite dosage. Thereafter 3 alkaline pHs of the cooling water were tested: 9.0, 9.4 and 9.6. The tests lasted between 25 and 35 days. The cooling water from the basins were analysed for total cell count by flow cytometry, L. pneumophila concentration by plate count and occasional qPCR analyses targeting the mip-gene, bacterial and eukaryotic community analyses with 16S and 18S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, relative abundance of eukaryotic to prokaryotic DNA by qPCR of the 16S and 18S rRNA gene. The L. pneumophila analyses showed considerable growth at pH 9.0 and pH 9.4 but was maintained below detection limit (< 100 CFU/L) at pH 9.6 without disinfection. Interestingly, the results correlated with the overall abundance of protozoa in the water samples but not directly with the relative abundance of specific reported protozoan hosts of Legionella. The pathogenicity based on 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing of the cooling water DNA decreased with increasing pH with a strong decline between pH 9.0 and pH 9.4, from 7.1% to 1.6% of relative abundance of pathogenic genera respectively. A strong shift in microbiome was observed between each tested pH and reproducibility of the experiment at pH 9.6 was confirmed with a duplicate test lasting 80 days. High-pH conditioning ≥ 9.6 is therefore considered as an efficient disinfectant-free cooling tower operation for control of pathogenicity, including L. pneumophila.

Bacterial community dynamics and disinfection impact in cooling water systems.

Understanding the bacterial dynamics in cooling towers is imperative for the assessment of disinfection efficiency and management of microbial risks linked to aerosol formation. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of feed water on the cooling water bacterial microbiome and investigate the survival ability of its members when exposed to continuous chlorine disinfection. Water from an industrial cooling water system (2600 m3/h) was collected over a 5-month period at 3 locations along the feed water line and 3 locations in the cooling tower. ATP measurements suggested that the average ATP-per-cell in the cooling tower evolved independently from the average ATP-per-cell in the feed water. Flow cytometry and 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing were then combined to quantify the bacterial dynamics in the whole system. A mass balance based equation was established to determine net growth and net decay of the cooling tower bacterial communities in order to evaluate the impact of continuous chlorination (0.35-0.41 mg Cl2/L residual chlorine). The results indicated that cooling tower main community members were determined by the input feed water microbiome and the bacterial community structure was further shaped by varying decay rates of the microorganisms. Notably, the order Obscuribacterales showed to be growing in the cooling tower in the presence of residual chlorine up to 0.4 mg Cl2/L, with a recurrent net growth of 260 ± 95%, taking into account the impact of the concentration factor. This conclusion was only possible thanks to the systematic analysis described in this paper and generates discussion about the resistance of Obscuribacterales to residual chlorine. The described mass balance approach provides a high level of understanding on bacterial dynamics and should be considered for future characterization studies of cooling towers in which accurate investigation of microbiome changes is essential.

Enhanced biofilm solubilization by urea in reverse osmosis membrane systems.

Chemical cleaning is routinely performed in reverse osmosis (RO) plants for the regeneration of RO membranes that suffer from biofouling problems. The potential of urea as a chaotropic agent to enhance the solubilization of biofilm proteins has been reported briefly in the literature. In this paper the efficiency of urea cleaning for RO membrane systems has been compared to conventionally applied acid/alkali treatment. Preliminary assessment confirmed that urea did not damage the RO polyamide membranes and that the membrane cleaning efficiency increased with increasing concentrations of urea and temperature. Accelerated biofilm formation was carried out in membrane fouling simulators which were subsequently cleaned with (i) 0.01M sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and 0.1M hydrochloric acid (HCl) (typically applied in industry), (ii) urea (CO(NH2)2) and hydrochloric acid, or (iii) urea only (1340 g/Lwater). The pressure drop over the flow channel was used to evaluate the efficiency of the applied chemical cleanings. Biomass removal was evaluated by measuring chemical oxygen demand (COD), adenosine triphosphate (ATP), protein, and carbohydrate content from the membrane and spacer surfaces after cleaning. In addition to protein and carbohydrate quantification of the extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), fluorescence excitation-emission matrix (FEEM) spectroscopy was used to distinguish the difference in organic matter of the remaining biomass to assess biofilm solubilization efficacy of the different cleaning agents. Results indicated that two-stage CO(NH2)2/HCl cleaning was as effective as cleaning with NaOH/HCl in terms of restoring the feed channel pressure drop (>70% pressure drop decrease). One-stage cleaning with urea only was not as effective indicating the importance of the second-stage low pH acid cleaning in weakening the biofilm matrix. All three chemical cleaning protocols were equally effective in reducing the concentration of predominant EPS components protein and carbohydrate (>50% reduction in concentrations). However, urea-based cleaning strategies were more effective in solubilizing protein-like matter and tyrosine-containing proteins. Furthermore, ATP measurements showed that biomass inactivation was up to two-fold greater after treatment with urea-based chemical cleanings compared to the conventional acid/alkali treatment. The applicability of urea as an alternative, economical, eco-friendly and effective chemical cleaning agent for the control of biological fouling was successfully demonstrated.

Tetraploidy in a liveborn infant.

We report a 3 month old boy with tetraploidy, found in peripheral blood and skin fibroblast cultures, with severely delayed growth and neurodevelopment, and with a cleft lip; these findings have not been described before. This report brings to seven the total number of liveborn infants with a 92,XXYY karyotype.

Diploid/tetraploid mosaicism in a stillborn infant with prune belly anomaly.

We report a case of a stillborn infant that presented multiple birth defects and a diploid/tetraploid mosaicism in skin fibroblasts. Clinical and cytogenetical findings are discussed and compared with those presented in previously reported cases.

An unusual variant of chromosome 16. Two new cases.

Two new cases of an unusual chromosome 16 variant, 16p+, in non-related normal carriers are reported.

Holoprosencephaly and trisomy 21 in a child born to a nondiabetic mother.

This is the second reported case of a child with holoprosencephaly and trisomy 21. The first case was born to a diabetic woman; in our case, there was no evidence of diabetes in the mother. Most of the distinctive facial features of Down syndrome were obscured by the presence of cyclopia and a supraorbital proboscis in this infant. The relevance of chromosome analysis in cases with holoprosencephaly is discussed.

Partial duplication 16p resulting from a 3:1 segregation of a maternal reciprocal translocation.

We report on a male infant with a duplication 9p (pter----q13) and duplication 16p (p13----pter) resulting from a 3:1 meiotic disjunction of a maternal reciprocal translocation. In this case, the mode of segregation fits to the Pachytene-Diagram Model of Jalbert et al [1980]. The infant showed clinical features that have been described both in dup(16p) and in dup(9p). To our knowledge, this is the first time that this unbalanced karyotype has been reported.

Partial monosomy 15q due to de novo t(15;22)(q15;p11).

We report a 2-years-old infant who presented psychomotor delay and facial dysmorphic features. He has a partial monosomy of 15q resulting from de novo t(15;22)(q15;p11). Up to now three other cases with a similar 15q monosomy have been reported, but the present case is the first one with a "pure" monosomy 15q.

Trisomy 13 in the child of two carriers of a 13/15 translocation.

We report on an infant girl with trisomy 13 resulting from an inherited 13-15 Robertsonian translocation identified in a family from a small Spanish village of only 2,100 inhabitants. Both parents and several other relatives had a balanced 13-15 translocation.