Bioremediation of wastewaters with decabromodiphenyl ether by anaerobic granular sludge

Facilities adopting anaerobic granular sludge are widely used for the treatment of high strength wastewater, and hence collect many polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), especially decabromodiphenyl ether (BDE-209). We initiated a detailed investigation to gain insight into the bioremoval of BDE-209 by anaerobic granules. Influenced by solution pH, ionic strength and temperature, the equilibrium time was ∼6 h and the biosorption amount increased from 0.099 to 1.25 mg/g suspended sludge with the increase of BDE-209 concentrations. Kinetic studies indicate that BDE-209 biosorption on anaerobic granules follows the pseudo second-order kinetic model. Isotherm analysis exhibits that the Langmuir model fits the data at low temperature, while the Freundlich model is appropriate at room temperature. Thermodynamic analysis shows that biosorption followed an endothermic path and was nonspontaneous with negative value of ΔG0. XPS and FTIR spectra confirmed that oxygen and nitrogen atoms notably contributed to BDE-209 binding.