Simultaneous removal of atrazine and organic matter from wastewater using anaerobic moving bed biofilm reactor: A performance analysis

Zahra Derakhshan; Amir Hossein Mahvi; Mohammad Taghi Ghaneian; Seyed Mohammad Mazloomi; Mohammad Faramarzian; Mansooreh Dehghani; Hossein Fallahzadeh; Saeed Yousefinejad; Enayat Berizi; Mohammad Hassan Ehrampoush; Shima Bahrami

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2017.12.081

Simultaneous removal of atrazine and organic matter from wastewater using anaerobic moving bed biofilm reactor: A performance analysis

J Environ Manage. 2018 Mar 1:209:515-524. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2017.12.081. Epub 2018 Jan 8.

Affiliations

¹ Environmental Science and Technology Research Center, Department of Environmental Health Engineering, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran; Student Research Committee, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran; Department of Environmental Health, School of Health, Larestan University of Medical Sciences, Larestan, Iran.
² Center for Solid Waste Research (CSWR), Institute for Environmental Research (IER) and Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
³ Environmental Science and Technology Research Center, Department of Environmental Health Engineering, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
⁴ Nutrition Research Center, Department of Food Hygiene and Quality Control, School of Nutrition and Food Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
⁵ Research Center for Health Sciences, Department of Environmental Health, School of Health, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
⁶ Prevention and Epidemiology of Non-Communicable Disease Research Center, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
⁷ Research Center for Health Sciences, Department of Occupational Health Engineering, School of Health, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
⁸ Environmental Science and Technology Research Center, Department of Environmental Health Engineering, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran. Electronic address: ehrampoush@ssu.ac.ir.

PMID: 29324361
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2017.12.081

Abstract

In this study, an anaerobic moving bed biofilm reactor (AMBBR) was designed to biodegrade atrazine under mesophilic (32 °C) condition and then it was evaluated for approximately 1 year. After biofilm formation, acclimation, and enrichment of microbial population within the bioreactor, the effect of various operation conditions such as changes in the concentration of influent atrazine and sucrose, hydraulic retention time (HRT), and salinity on the removal of atrazine and chemical oxygen demand (COD) were studied. In optimum conditions, the maximum removal efficiency of atrazine and COD was 60.5% and 97.4%, respectively. Various models were developed to predict the performance of atrazine removal as a function of HRT during continuous digestion. Also, coefficients kinetics was studied and the maximum atrazine removal rate was determined by Stover - Kincannon model (r_max = 0.223 kg_ATZ/m³d). Increasing salinity up to 20 g/L NaCl in influent flow could inhibit atrazine biodegradation process strongly in the AMBBR reactor; whereas, the reactor could tolerate the concentrations less than 20 g/L easily. Results showed that AMBBR is feasible, easy, affordable, so suitable process for efficiently biodegrading toxic chlorinated organic compounds such as atrazine. There was no accumulation of atrazine in the biofilm and the loss of atrazine in the control reactor was negligible; this shows that atrazine removal mechanism in this system was due to co-metabolism.

Keywords: Anaerobic reactor; Biodegradation; Biokinetics; Co-metabolism; Herbicides.

MeSH terms

Atrazine / isolation & purification*
Biofilms
Bioreactors*
Waste Disposal, Fluid
Wastewater*
Water Purification

Substances

Waste Water
Atrazine