The response of anaerobic ammonium oxidation process to bisphenol-A: Linking reactor performance to microbial...

As a typical endocrine disruptor, bisphenol A (BPA) has been widely detected in various water bodies. Although the influence of BPA on traditional biological treatment system has been investigated, it is not clear whether it has potential impact on anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) process. The short- and long-term influences of BPA on reactor operational performance, sludge characteristics and microbial community were investigated in this study. Results revealed that 1 and 3 mg L^-1 BPA exhibited a limited adverse impact on granular sludge reactor performance. However, exposure of sludge under 10 mg L^-1 BPA would cause an obvious inhibition on nitrogen removal rate from 10.3 ± 0.2 to 7.6 ± 0.4 kg N m^-3 d^-1. BPA would affect granular sludge metabolic substance excretion and lead to effluent dissolved organic content increase. Both the microbial community and redundancy analysis showed that BPA exhibited a negative influence on Ca. Kuenenia but a positive correlation with SBR1031. Low BPA concentration appeared a limited impact on functional genes while 10 mg L^-1 BPA would cause decline of hzsA and hdh abundances. The results of this work might be valuable for in-depth understanding the potential influence of endocrine disruptor on anammox sludge.