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Microbial Wastewater Treatment01:30

Microbial Wastewater Treatment

Microbial communities in aquatic ecosystems play a key role in the natural breakdown of contaminants introduced through domestic and industrial effluents. Acting as biological catalysts, these microbes change and mineralize a wide range of organic and inorganic pollutants under different redox conditions.In oxygen-rich surface waters, aerobic heterotrophs lead organic matter breakdown, using oxygen as the terminal electron acceptor to efficiently oxidize substrates to carbon dioxide and water.
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Environmental Applications of Microorganisms

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Comparison of Scale in a Photosynthetic Reactor System for Algal Remediation of Wastewater
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Published on: March 6, 2017

Improving nitrogen removal in two modified decentralized wastewater systems.

Zhihua Liang1, Huy Quang Nguyen, Atreyee Das

  • 1Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA.

Water Environment Research : a Research Publication of the Water Environment Federation
|September 13, 2011
PubMed
Summary

This study compared membrane-aerated biofilm reactors (MABR) and microbial fuel cells (MFC) for wastewater treatment. MFCs showed superior nitrogen removal and nitrification activity compared to MABRs.

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Area of Science:

  • Environmental Engineering
  • Microbiology
  • Wastewater Treatment

Background:

  • Decentralized wastewater treatment systems face challenges in efficient nutrient removal.
  • Organic matter and nitrogen removal are critical for environmental protection.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate the effectiveness of membrane-aerated biofilm reactor (MABR) and microbial fuel cell (MFC) techniques for improving nutrient removal in wastewater.
  • To compare the performance of MABR and MFC in removing chemical oxygen demand and nitrogen species.

Main Methods:

  • Continuous-flow reactor operation for over 250 days.
  • Analysis of effluent concentrations for ammonium-nitrogen (NH4(+)-N) and nitrate-nitrogen (NO3(-)-N).
  • Measurement of dissolved oxygen, oxygen uptake rate, and molecular microbial analysis.

Main Results:

  • Both MABR and MFC achieved high chemical oxygen demand removal (>86%).
  • MFC demonstrated significantly higher total inorganic nitrogen removal (36%) compared to MABR (64%), with lower effluent NH4(+)-N (0.5 mg N/L vs 6.2 mg N/L).
  • Nitrification activity, linked to Nitrosomonas europaea, was detected in MFC sludge but not in MABR sludge.

Conclusions:

  • MFC technology shows greater potential for enhancing nitrogen removal, particularly nitrification, in decentralized wastewater systems compared to MABR.
  • Both MABR and MFC techniques can improve organic matter removal.
  • Bacterial community structure, specifically the abundance of Nitrosomonas europaea, correlates with nitrification efficiency.