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The performance and microbial communities of biodegradation-electron transfer with sulfur metabolism integrated process for flue gas desulfurization wastewater treatment

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Abstract

The biodegradation-electron transfer with sulfur metabolism integrated (BESI®) process was used for the treatment of real flue gas desulfurization wastewater. The BESI® process consists of an anaerobic activated sludge reactor, an anoxic activated sludge reactor, and an aerobic bio-film reactor. The performance of the integrated process was evaluated by the removal efficiencies of organics and nitrogen pollutants. The sulfate in the wastewater was used as an abundant sulfur source to drive the integrated process. The removal efficiencies of chemical oxygen demand, total organic carbon, ammonia nitrogen, and total nitrogen of the integrated process were 87.99, 87.04, 30.77, and 45.17%, respectively. High-throughput 454-pyrosequencing was applied for the analysis of microbial communities in the integrated process. From the anaerobic activated sludge (Sample 1), anoxic activated sludge (Sample 2), and aerobic bio-film (Sample 3), totals of 1701, 1181, and 857 operational taxonomic units were obtained, respectively. The sulfur cycle was associated with the removal of organics and nitrogen pollutants. The sulfate-reducing bacteria participated in the organics removal in the anaerobic reactor, and the sulfide oxidation was related with the denitrification in the anoxic reactor. A complete nitrogen degradation chain was built in the integrated process. Through the degradation chain, the nitrogenous organic pollutants, ammonia nitrogen, and nitrate could be removed. The participant functional bacteria were also detected by pyrosequencing.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Funds for Creative Research Groups of China (No. 51121062) and State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment (Harbin Institute of Technology) (Nos. 2015TS07 and HC201621-02). The authors acknowledge the support from the Guangdong Provincial Science and Technology Planning Project (2016A050503041) and the Department of Education of Guangdong Province.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China

    Chao Wei, Li Wei & Jun Ma

  2. Tianjin Waterworks Group Co., Ltd., Tianjin, China

    Wenjie He

  3. School of Energy and Civil Engineering, Harbin University of Commerce, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China

    Chunying Li

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  1. Chao Wei
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  2. Wenjie He
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  3. Li Wei
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Correspondence to Li Wei.

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Wei, C., He, W., Wei, L. et al. The performance and microbial communities of biodegradation-electron transfer with sulfur metabolism integrated process for flue gas desulfurization wastewater treatment. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 40, 1543–1553 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-017-1810-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-017-1810-2

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