Phenol biodegradation and microbial community dynamics in extractive membrane bioreactor (EMBR) for phenol-laden saline wastewater

• Published in: Bioresource technology Vol. 244; no. Pt 1; pp. 1121 - 1128
• Main Authors: Ren, Long-Fei, Chen, Rui, Zhang, Xiaofan, Shao, Jiahui, He, Yiliang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.11.2017
• Subjects: adverse effects; biodegradation; biodiversity; Bioreactors; community structure; Extracellular polymeric substance; Extractive membrane bioreactor; High-throughput sequence; membrane bioreactors; microbial communities; Microbial community dynamics; Phenol; Phenol removal; Phenols; Proteobacteria; rubber; silicon; sodium chloride; Waste Water; wastewater; Water Purification; Extracellular polymeric substance; Extractive membrane bioreactor; Microbial community dynamics; High-throughput sequence; Phenol removal
• ISSN: 0960-8524; 1873-2976; 1873-2976
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2017.08.121

•A novel EMBR was developed to achieve phenol biodegradation and salt separation.•Phenol was degraded in nitrification, denitrification and other biological process.•Bacterial EPS release was related with the absorption and biodegradation of phenol.•Diversity and abundance of microbial community decreased with phenol increase. An extractive membrane bioreactor (EMBR) for phenol-laden saline wastewater was set up in this study to investigate the variations of phenol removal, extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) release and microbial community dynamics. The gradual release of phenol and the total separation of salt were achieved by silicon rubber tube membrane. Only phenol (55.6–273.9mg/L) was extracted into microorganism unit from wastewaters containing 1.0–5.0g/L phenol and 35.0g/L NaCl. After 82d of EMBR operation, maximal 273.9mg/L of phenol was removed in EMBR. Low concentration of phenol in wastewater (2.5g/L) played a favorable effect on the microbial community structure, community and dynamics. The enumeration of Proteobacteria (30,499 sequences) significantly increased with more released EPS (82.82mg/gSS) to absorb and degrade phenol, compared to the virgin data without phenol addition. However, high concentration of phenol showed adverse effects on EPS release, microbial abundance and biodiversity.