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Acid Orange 7 degradation using methane as the sole carbon source and electron donor

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Abstract

Azo dyes are widely applied in the textile industry but are not entirely consumed during the dyeing process and can thus be discharged to the environment in wastewater. However, azo dyes can be degraded using various electron donors, and in this paper, Acid Orange 7 (AO7) degradation performance is investigated using methane (CH4) as the sole electron donor. Methane has multiple sources and is readily available and inexpensive. Experiments using 13C-labeled isotopes showed that AO7 degradation was coupled with anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM) and, subsequently, affected by the initial concentrations of AO7. Higher concentrations of AO7 could inhibit the activity of microorganisms, which was confirmed by the long-term performance of AO7 degradation, with maximum removal rates of 8.94 mg/(L·d) in a batch reactor and 280 mg/(L·d) in a hollow fiber membrane bioreactor (HfMBR). High-throughput sequencing using 16S rRNA genes showed that Candidatus Methanoperedens, affiliated to ANME-2d, dominated the microbial community in the batch reactor and HfMBR. Additionally, the relative abundance of Proteobacteria bacteria (Phenylobacterium, Pseudomonas, and Geothermobacter) improved after AO7 degradation. This outcome suggested that ANME-2d alone, or acting synergistically with partner bacteria, played a key role in the process of AO7 degradation coupled with AOM.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51178444 and 51878175), the Program for Innovative Research Team in Science and Technology in Fujian Province University (No. IRTSTFJ) and the Startup Foundation for Introducing Talent of NUIST.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Applied Meteorology, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China

    Yanan Bai

  2. Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Soil Environmental Health and Regulation, College of Resources and Environment, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, 350002, China

    Yanan Bai, Fang Zhang & Raymond Jianxiong Zeng

  3. Advanced Laboratory for Environmental Research and Technology, USTC-CityU, Suzhou, 215123, China

    Yanan Bai & Raymond Jianxiong Zeng

  4. CAS Key Laboratory of Urban Pollutant Conversion, Department of Applied Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Xiuning Wang & Raymond Jianxiong Zeng

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  1. Yanan Bai
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  2. Xiuning Wang
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  3. Fang Zhang
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  4. Raymond Jianxiong Zeng
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Correspondence to Raymond Jianxiong Zeng.

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Highlights

• AO7 degradation was coupled with anaerobic methane oxidation.

• Higher concentration of AO7 inhibited the degradation.

• The maximum removal rate of AO7 reached 280 mg/(L·d) in HfMBR.

• ANME-2d dominated the microbial community in both batch reactor and HfMBR.

• ANME-2d alone or synergistic with the partner bacteria played a significant role.

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Bai, Y., Wang, X., Zhang, F. et al. Acid Orange 7 degradation using methane as the sole carbon source and electron donor. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng. 16, 34 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-021-1468-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-021-1468-5

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