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New insights into different surfactants’ impacts on sludge fermentation: Focusing on the particular metabolic processes and microbial genetic traits

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Abstract

Surfactants were expected to exhibit positive effects on the waste activated sludge (WAS) disposal. However, the systematic comparison of different categories of surfactants on the WAS fermentation and the functional mechanisms, especially microbial metabolic traits, have not yet been precisely explored. This study revealed the positive effects of different surfactants on the volatile fatty acid (VFA) production, which followed the order of alkyl polysaccharides (APG)>sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate (SDBS)>hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (HTAB). Mechanistic exploration found that the presence of different surfactants improved solubilization and hydrolysis steps, and then contributed to the subsequent acidification with different efficiencies. The functional microorganisms associated with VFA generation were enriched in surfactant-conditioned reactors. Metagenomic analysis further indicated that the key genes involved in the particular process of VFA generation were over-expressed. The simultaneous bioavailable substrate improvement, functional bacterial enrichment, and metabolic activity upregulation induced by different surfactants jointly contributed to VFA promotion during WAS fermentation. This study could provide a comprehensive realization of surfactants’ impacts on the WAS fermentation process, and more importantly, it reminded the public to discern the distinct interplaying effects induced by different chemicals in regulating the WAS disposal and resource recovery.

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Acknowledgements

The work is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52070069), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (China) (No. B200202099), Jiangsu Province Natural Science Foundation (China) (BK20211207), Shanghai Post-doctoral Excellence Program (China) (No. 2020419), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2021M692423) and the State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse Foundation (China) (No. PCRRF20005).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Integrated Regulation and Resource Development on Shallow Lakes, Ministry of Education, Hohai University, Nanjing, 210098, China

    Jingyang Luo, Shiyu Fang, Wenxuan Huang, Feng Wang, Le Zhang, Fang Fang & Jiashun Cao

  2. College of Environment, Hohai University, Nanjing, 210098, China

    Jingyang Luo, Shiyu Fang, Wenxuan Huang, Feng Wang, Le Zhang, Fang Fang & Jiashun Cao

  3. State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Yang Wu

  4. College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China

    Dongbo Wang

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  1. Jingyang Luo
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  2. Shiyu Fang
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  3. Wenxuan Huang
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  4. Feng Wang
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  5. Le Zhang
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  6. Fang Fang
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  7. Jiashun Cao
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  8. Yang Wu
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  9. Dongbo Wang
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Correspondence to Yang Wu.

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Highlights

• The promoting effects for VFA generation follow the order of APG>SDBS>HTAB.

• Surfactants improve the WAS solubilization/hydrolysis and acidification processes.

• The VFA promotion is associated with surfactants’ distinctive characteristics.

• Surfactants induce the enrichment of functional bacteria for VFA biosynthesis.

• The vital genes for substrates delivery, metabolism, and VFA yields are upregulated.

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Luo, J., Fang, S., Huang, W. et al. New insights into different surfactants’ impacts on sludge fermentation: Focusing on the particular metabolic processes and microbial genetic traits. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng. 16, 106 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-022-1527-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-022-1527-6

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