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Isolation and Characterization of an Erythromycin-Degrading Strain and Application for Bioaugmentation in a Biological Aerated Filter

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Abstract

An erythromycin-degrading bacterium was isolated from the activated sludge of a sewage treatment plant (STP). Based on the morphological and physiological characteristics, the isolated strain was identified and named as Pseudomonas sp. ERY-E. In an inorganic salt medium inoculated at 1 % (v/v) of ERY-E strain containing 50 mg/L of erythromycin (ERY), the removal efficiency of ERY as high as 83.7 % was obtained under the optimum conditions with temperature of 30 °C, pH of 7.0, and 10 mg/L of yeast as the external carbon source. Subsequently, the ERY-E strain was used for bioaugmenting a biological aerated filter (BAF) to treat surface water containing low-concentration ERY. The influence of hydraulic retention time (HRT) and air-liquid ratio (A/L) on the performance of BAF was investigated. The average removal efficiencies of ERY and permanganate index (CODMn) were about 60.6 and 26.1 % in bioaugmented system (BAF2) and 26.9 and 26.0 % in unbioaugmented system (BAF1), respectively, under the optimum conditions with HRT of 4.0 h and A/L of 4:1 at steady state. Due to the stable removal of CODMn in BAF2 as compared with BAF1, it can be concluded that the introduction of ERY-E strain could collaborate with the indigenous microorganisms to attain a better ERY removal efficiency. As a result, the bioaugmented BAF method can be considered as an alternative technology for the treatment of surface water containing low-concentration emerging pollutants.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51208086, 51178093), the Shanghai Pujiang Program (13PJ1400100), the DHU Distinguished Young Professor Program, and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Donghua Univeristy, 2999 North Renmin Road, Songjiang District, Shanghai, 201620, China

    Pin Gao, Xin Wei, Chaochao Gu, Xiaoqian Wu, Gang Xue & Weimin Shi

  2. State Environmental Protection Engineering Center for Pollution Treatment and Control in Textile Industry, Donghua University, Shanghai, 201620, China

    Pin Gao, Xiaoqian Wu & Gang Xue

  3. Department of Environmental Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, USA

    Weimin Sun

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  1. Pin Gao
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  2. Xin Wei
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  3. Chaochao Gu
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  4. Xiaoqian Wu
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  5. Gang Xue
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  6. Weimin Shi
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Correspondence to Pin Gao or Weimin Sun.

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Gao, P., Wei, X., Gu, C. et al. Isolation and Characterization of an Erythromycin-Degrading Strain and Application for Bioaugmentation in a Biological Aerated Filter. Water Air Soil Pollut 226, 190 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-015-2449-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-015-2449-8

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