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Coagulation increased the growth potential of various species bacteria of the effluent of a MBR for the treatment of domestic wastewater

  • Water Reclamation and Reuse
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Abstract

Microbial regrowth in reclaimed water is an important issue restricting water reclamation and reuse. Previous studies about the effect of coagulation on microbial growth in reclaimed water were limited and inconsistent. In this study, microbial growth potentials of the effluent of a membrane bioreactor (MBR) for the treatment of domestic wastewater after coagulation was evaluated by using bacteria of various phyla, classes (α-Proteobacteria, β-Proteobacteria, γ-Proteobacteria, and Actinobacteriaa) or species isolated from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and assimilable organic carbon (AOC) test strains. Bacterial growth increased considerably after coagulation with polyaluminum for the samples investigated in this study. The results revealed that the microbial growth potentials in the effluent of the MBR evidently increased after coagulation. The increase ratio of bacterial growth could reach up to 929 %. Specific UV absorbance (SUVA) of the samples averagely decreased 16.3 %, but the removal efficiencies of the excitation emission matrices (EEMs) were less than 5 % after coagulation. It is suggested that the organic matter which affected the bacterial growth might be substances having aromaticity (i.e., UV254 absorbance) but little fluorescence. According to molecular weight (MW) distribution analysis, the coagulation was indeed effective in removing organic matters with large MW. The removal of large MW organic matters might be related to bacterial growth increase. The results indicated that posttreatments are needed after coagulation to maintain the biological stability of reclaimed water.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by Key Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51138006). The Collaborative Innovation Center for Regional Environmental Quality also supported this research. And, the authors would like to thank the wastewater treatment plants for their supports on water sampling.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control State Key Joint Laboratory, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, People’s Republic of China

    Tong Yu, Guoqiang Li, Hong-Ying Hu & Yun Lu

  2. State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Microorganism Application and Risk Control, Graduate School at Shenzhen, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen, 518055, People’s Republic of China

    Hong-Ying Hu

  3. China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing, 100083, People’s Republic of China

    Wenqi Lin

Authors
  1. Tong Yu
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  2. Guoqiang Li
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  3. Wenqi Lin
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  4. Hong-Ying Hu
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  5. Yun Lu
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Correspondence to Yun Lu.

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Responsible editor: Gerald Thouand

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Yu, T., Li, G., Lin, W. et al. Coagulation increased the growth potential of various species bacteria of the effluent of a MBR for the treatment of domestic wastewater. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24, 5126–5133 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-6326-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-6326-9

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