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Cellular and compositional insight into the sludge dewatering process using enzyme treatment

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Abstract

Removal of intracellular water in microbial cells remains a key issue for sludge disposal, and here, a novel method of enzymatic treatment with two enzymes, lysozyme and protease, was employed. Total internal reflection fluorescence microscope (TIRF) was applied to image the bacteria in sludge and quantify the evolution of sludge bacteria for the first time. The ratio of dead/live bacterial cells was always higher in the presence of lysozyme than in the presence of protease, indicating that lysozyme has higher activity in inducing bacterial cell degradation and releasing intracellular water. The compositions of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) were further measured, and the results show that the dewatering performance of sludge is correlated both to the release of cell contents and the variations in EPS composition during cell degradation. Moreover, kinetic analysis demonstrated that the enzyme-catalyzed reaction was substantially completed within 1 h, i.e., the reaction was quite rapid during the first 1 h, and thereafter, it gradually reduced to stability. The mechanism of enzymatic treatment of sludge explored in this study thus not only enhanced the understanding of sludge deep dewatering but also provided significant methodological clues for the disposal of sludge.

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Funding

This study was supported by the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (51522401) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (51472007 and 51772141). This work was also supported financially by the Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Committee (ZDSYS201602261932201, JCYJ20170412154335393, and KQTD2016022619584022). Additional support was provided by Southern University of Science and Technology (Grant No. G01296001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, People’s Republic of China

    Wei Liu, Xuan Zhong, Lei Cheng, Jing Wang, Yongqi Sun & Zuotai Zhang

  2. Department of Biology, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, People’s Republic of China

    Yi Deng

  3. Key Laboratory of Municipal Solid Waste Recycling Technology and Management of Shenzhen City, Shenzhen, 518055, People’s Republic of China

    Zuotai Zhang

Authors
  1. Wei Liu
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  2. Xuan Zhong
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  3. Lei Cheng
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  4. Jing Wang
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  5. Yongqi Sun
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  6. Yi Deng
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  7. Zuotai Zhang
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Correspondence to Yi Deng or Zuotai Zhang.

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Responsible editor: Gerald Thouand

Electronic supplementary material

Details on the sample and enzyme characteristics, dye manual, experimental methods, and TIRF microscope images are provided in the Supporting Information.

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Liu, W., Zhong, X., Cheng, L. et al. Cellular and compositional insight into the sludge dewatering process using enzyme treatment. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25, 28942–28953 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-2854-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-2854-9

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