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The role of extracellular polymeric substances in reducing copper inhibition to nitrification in activated sludge

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Abstract

This study presents the role of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) in reducing the inhibitory effects of copper towards nitrifying activated sludge. EPS could ameliorate copper toxicity in activated sludge by binding metal ions. A series of copper inhibition experiments were conducted with activated sludge taken from laboratoryscale sequencing batch reactor (SBR) systems operated under different feast-famine cycles, which provided the different conditions to the EPS-producing heterotrophic populations. The toxicity of copper to both nitrifiers and heterotrophs decreased with increasing the feast-famine period. Average EPS contents were substantially higher in SBR sludge with longer feast-famine periods indicating that the decrease in the toxicity of copper at a longer feastfamine period was attributed to the presence of higher amounts of EPS. Comparison of the responses of nitrifiers and heterotrophs to free copper suggests that nitrifiers were no more sensitive to copper than heterotrophs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Engineering, Korea University, Sejong, 339-700, Korea

    June S. Song, Kwanhyung Lee & Jae Woo Lee

  2. Air Liquide Delaware Research and Technology Center, Newark, DE, 19702, USA

    Minho Maeng

  3. Department of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Korea University, Sejong, 339-700, Korea

    Seung Pil Pack

Authors
  1. June S. Song
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  2. Minho Maeng
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  3. Kwanhyung Lee
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  4. Seung Pil Pack
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  5. Jae Woo Lee
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Correspondence to Jae Woo Lee.

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Song, J.S., Maeng, M., Lee, K. et al. The role of extracellular polymeric substances in reducing copper inhibition to nitrification in activated sludge. Biotechnol Bioproc E 21, 683–688 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12257-016-0329-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12257-016-0329-8

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