Novel intertidal wetland sediment-inoculated moving bed biofilm reactor treating high-salinity wastewater: Metagenomic sequencing revealing key functional microorganisms

Haifeng Zhang; Jiahua Wu; Ruifeng Li; Dong-Hoon Kim; Xuejun Bi; Guoli Zhang; Bo Jiang; How Yong Ng; Xueqing Shi

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2022.126817

Novel intertidal wetland sediment-inoculated moving bed biofilm reactor treating high-salinity wastewater: Metagenomic sequencing revealing key functional microorganisms

Bioresour Technol. 2022 Mar:348:126817. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2022.126817. Epub 2022 Feb 5.

Authors

Haifeng Zhang¹, Jiahua Wu¹, Ruifeng Li¹, Dong-Hoon Kim², Xuejun Bi¹, Guoli Zhang¹, Bo Jiang¹, How Yong Ng³, Xueqing Shi⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Qingdao University of Technology, 11 Fushun Road, Qingdao 266033, PR China.
² Department of Smart City Engineering, Inha University, 100 Inharo, Michuhol-gu, Incheon 22212, South Korea.
³ Centre for Water Research, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore, 1 Engineering Dr. 2, 117576, Singapore.
⁴ School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Qingdao University of Technology, 11 Fushun Road, Qingdao 266033, PR China. Electronic address: shixq85@163.com.

PMID: 35134521
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2022.126817

Abstract

In this study, two lab-scale moving bed biofilm reactors (MBBR), seeded with intertidal wetland sediment (IWS) and activated sludge (AS), were constructed to compare their performances in treating high-salinity (3%) wastewater. Under a wide range of influent TOC (178-620 mg/L) and NH₄⁺-N (25-100 mg/L), both the MBBRs (R_iws and R_as) exhibited excellent TOC removal efficiencies of >95%. Regarding nitrogen reduction, R_iws exhibited a significantly superior TN removal efficiency of 90.2 ± 1.8% than that of R_as (76.8 ± 2.9%). A correlation analysis was innovatively conducted comparing the results between metagenomic sequencing and DNA pyrosequencing, and positive linear relationships were found with R² values of 0.763-0.945. Meanwhile, for illustration of different TN removal performance, nitrogen metabolic pathways were also assessed. Moreover, a list of functional oxidases (EC: 1.13.11.1, EC: 1.13.11.2, EC: 1.13.11.24, EC: 1.13.12.16, EC: 1.4.3.4, EC: 1.16.3.3, EC: 1.14.14.28) was found in IWS, revealing its potential in degradation of recalcitrant organics.

Keywords: DNA pyrosequencing; High salinity; Intertidal wetland sediment; Metagenomic sequencing; Moving bed biofilm reactor.

MeSH terms

Biofilms
Bioreactors
Nitrogen / analysis
Salinity
Waste Disposal, Fluid
Wastewater*
Wetlands*

Substances

Waste Water
Nitrogen