The excess sludge generated from the activated sludge process remains a big issue. Sustainable approaches that achieve in situ sludge reduction with satisfactory effluent quality deserve attention. This study explored the sludge reduction performance of sulfidogenic anoxic-oxic-anoxic (AOA) membrane bioreactors. The dynamics of the microbial community and metabolic pathways were further analyzed to elucidate the internal mechanism of sludge reduction. Compared with the conventional anoxic-oxic-oxic membrane bioreactor (MBRcontrol), AOAS150 (150 mg/L SO42- in the membrane tank) and AOAS300 (300 mg/L SO42- in the membrane tank) reduced biomass production by 40.39% and 47.45%, respectively. The sulfide reduced from sulfate could enhance the sludge decay rate and decrease sludge production. Extracellular polymeric substances (EPSs) destruction and aerobic lysis contributed to sludge reduction in AOA bioreactors. The relative abundance of Bacteroidetes (phylum), sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB, genus), and Ignavibacterium (genus) increased in AOA bioreactors compared with MBRcontrol. Our metagenomic analysis indicated that the total enzyme-encoding genes involved in glycolysis, denitrification, and sulfate-reduction processes decreased over time in AOAS300 and were lower in AOAS300 than AOAS150 at the final stage of operation. The excess accumulation of sulfide in AOAS300 may inactive the functional bacteria, and sulfide inhibition induced sludge reduction.
Keywords: membrane bioreactor; metabolic pathways; microbial community; sludge reduction; sulfide inhibition.