Biodegradation performance and anti-fouling mechanism of an ICME/electro-biocarriers-MBR system in livestock wastewater (antibiotic-containing) treatment

Fu Chen; Jing Ma; Yanfeng Zhu; Xiaoxiao Li; Haochen Yu; Yan Sun

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.128064

Biodegradation performance and anti-fouling mechanism of an ICME/electro-biocarriers-MBR system in livestock wastewater (antibiotic-containing) treatment

J Hazard Mater. 2022 Mar 15:426:128064. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.128064. Epub 2021 Dec 10.

Authors

Fu Chen¹, Jing Ma², Yanfeng Zhu³, Xiaoxiao Li⁴, Haochen Yu², Yan Sun⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of Public Administration, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China; Engineering Research Center of Ministry of Education for Mine Ecological Restoration, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221116, China. Electronic address: chenfu@cumt.edu.cn.
² School of Public Administration, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China; Engineering Research Center of Ministry of Education for Mine Ecological Restoration, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221116, China.
³ School of Environment Science and Spatial Informatics, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221008, Jiangsu, China.
⁴ School of Agriculture and Biology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
⁵ School of Public Administration, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China.

PMID: 34922131
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.128064

Abstract

Livestock wastewater is an important reservoir of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and antibiotic residues. Membrane fouling is one of the most challenging problems confining the operation and application of membrane bioreactor (MBR). In this work, a novel iron-carbon micro-electrolysis (ICME)/electro-biocarriers-MBR system was established to explore the performance of pollutant removal and anti-fouling for an actual livestock wastewater. A light-weight porous ceramsite (bulk density 0.98 g/cm³) was used as the MBR biocarriers. The electrons generated from iron corrosion in the ICME tank traveled through external wires to the stainless steel membrane modules of MBR and the protons were transferred from the MBR tank to the ICME tank through a salt bridge, thus producing a spontaneous electric field. Under the optimized conditions, the system exhibited chemical oxygen demand removal of 76.0%, total suspended solids removal of 100%, antibiotic removal of 86.4%, NH₄⁺-N removal of 91.1%, and ARGs reduction of 6-8 orders of magnitude. The quality of the final effluent can reach the national Class I-A discharge criteria. Adding ceramsite could not only effectively improve biodegradation performance but also alleviate membrane fouling through the migration and enrichment of microbial flora to the ceramsite. The self-generated electric field had no significant improvement effect on pollutant removal, but exhibited good anti-membrane fouling behavior which could be ascribed to (i) oxidization of membrane foulants by the electrochemical products (such as H₂O₂ and •OH radicals), and (ii) electrostatic repulsion of negatively charged foulants and bacterial cells. The bacterial community structure and diversity were studied using high-throughput pyrosequencing, and the results demonstrated the roles of electric field and biocarriers in enrichment of anti-fouling communities and repulsion of biofouling-creating communities.

Keywords: Antibiotic; Cake layer; Electric field; Membrane fouling; Suspended ceramsite.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Anti-Bacterial Agents
Biofouling* / prevention & control
Bioreactors
Carbon
Electrolysis
Hydrogen Peroxide
Iron
Livestock
Membranes, Artificial
Wastewater*

Substances

Anti-Bacterial Agents
Membranes, Artificial
Waste Water
Carbon
Hydrogen Peroxide
Iron