How Does Triclocarban Affect Sulfur Transformation in Anaerobic Systems?

Triclocarban (TCC), as a typical antimicrobial agent, accumulates at substantial levels in natural environments and engineered systems. This work investigated the impact of TCC on anaerobic sulfur transformation, especially toxic H₂S production. Experimental findings revealed that TCC facilitated sulfur flow from the sludge solid phase to liquid phase, promoted sulfate reduction and sulfur-containing amino acid degradation, and largely improved anaerobic H₂S production, i.e., 50-600 mg/kg total suspended solids (TSS) TCC increased the cumulative H₂S yields by 24.76-478.12%. Although TCC can be partially biodegraded in anaerobic systems, the increase in H₂S production can be mainly attributed to the effect of TCC rather than its degradation products. TCC was spontaneously adsorbed by protein-like substances contained in microbe extracellular polymers (EPSs), and the adsorbed TCC increased the direct electron transfer ability of EPSs, possibly due to the increase in the content of electroactive polymer protein in EPSs, the polarization of the amide group C═O bond, and the increase of the α-helical peptide dipole moment, which might be one important reason for promoting sulfur bioconversion processes. Microbial analysis showed that the presence of TCC enriched the organic substrate-degrading bacteria and sulfate-reducing bacteria and increased the abundances of functional genes encoding sulfate transport and dissimilatory sulfate reduction.