The performance and microbial communities of an anaerobic membrane bioreactor for treating fluctuating 2-chlorophenol wastewater

Mingchao Zhu; Na Li; Yongze Lu; Zhaoxia Hu; Shouwen Chen; Raymond Jianxiong Zeng

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2020.124001

The performance and microbial communities of an anaerobic membrane bioreactor for treating fluctuating 2-chlorophenol wastewater

Bioresour Technol. 2020 Dec:317:124001. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2020.124001. Epub 2020 Aug 12.

Authors

Mingchao Zhu¹, Na Li², Yongze Lu³, Zhaoxia Hu¹, Shouwen Chen¹, Raymond Jianxiong Zeng⁴

Affiliations

¹ Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Chemical Pollution Control and Resources Reuse, School of Environmental and Biological Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China.
² Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Chemical Pollution Control and Resources Reuse, School of Environmental and Biological Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China. Electronic address: nli@njust.edu.cn.
³ School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China.
⁴ Center of Wastewater Resource Recovery, College of Resources and Environment, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, China.

PMID: 32805483
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2020.124001

Abstract

An anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) was used to treat low to high (5-200 mg/L) concentrations of 2-chlorophenol (2-CP) wastewater. The AnMBR achieved high and stable chemical oxygen demand removal and 2-CP removal with an average value of 93.2% and 94.2% under long hydraulic retention times (HRTs, 48-96 h), respectively. 2-CP removal efficiency of 98.6 mg/L/d was achieved with 2-CP concentration of 200 mg/L, which was much higher than that of other anaerobic bioreactors. Furthermore, volatile fatty acids didn't accumulate under high 2-CP loading. Long HRTs significantly reduced the membrane fouling as the fouling rate (0.90 × 10⁹-5.44 × 10⁹ m^-1h^-1) was low. Spirochaetaceae and Methanosaeta were the dominant microbes responsible for dechlorination, methanogenesis, and shock resistance. All these results demonstrate that this AnMBR operated under long HRTs is good and robust for fluctuating chlorophenols wastewater treatment, which has high potential for treating fluctuating refractory organics wastewater with the low membrane fouling rate.

Keywords: 2-Chlorophenol; AnMBR; Membrane fouling; Satisfactory performance; Shock load.

MeSH terms

Anaerobiosis
Bioreactors
Chlorophenols*
Membranes, Artificial
Microbiota*
Waste Disposal, Fluid
Wastewater

Substances

Chlorophenols
Membranes, Artificial
Waste Water
2-chlorophenol