Performance and microbial community analysis on nitrate removal in a bioelectrochemical reactor

In this experiment, we took reflux sludge, sludge from an aeration tank, and soil from roots as microbial inoculating sources for an electrochemical device for denitrification with high-throughput sequencing on cathodic biofilms. The efficiency of nitrate nitrogen removal using different microbial inoculates varied among voltages. The optimal voltages for denitrification of reflux sludge, aeration tank sludge, and root soil were 0.7V, 0.5V, and 0.5V, respectively. Further analysis revealed that the respective voltages had a significant effect upon microbial growth from the respective inoculates. Proteobacteria and Firmicutes were the main denitrifying microbes. With the addition of low current (produced by the applied voltage), the Chao1, Shannon and Simpson indexes of the diversity of microorganisms in soil inoculation sources increased, indicating that low current can increase the diversity and richness of the microorganisms, while the reflux sludge and aeration tank sludge showed different changes. Low-current stimulation decreased microbial diversity to a certain extent. Pseudomonas showed a trend of decline with increasing applied voltage, in which the MEC (microbial electrolysis cell) of rhizosphere soil as inoculates decreased most significantly from 77.05% to 12.58%, while the MEC of Fusibacter showed a significant increase, and the sludge of reflux sludge, aeration tank and rhizosphere soil increased by 31.12%, 18.7% and 34.6%, respectively. The applied voltage also significantly increased the abundance of Azoarcus in communities from the respective inoculates.