Guanglei Qiu

Osmotic membrane bioreactor for wastewater treatment and the effect of salt accumulation on system performance and microbial community dynamics.

An osmotic membrane bioreactor was developed for wastewater treatment. The effects of salt accumulation on system performance and microbial community dynamics were investigated. Evident deterioration of biological activity, especially nitrification, was observed, which resulted in significant accumulation of organic matter and NH4(+)-N within the bioreactor. Arising from the elevation of salinity, almost all the dominant species was taken over by high salt-tolerant species. Significant succession among different species of Nitromonas was observed for ammonia-oxidizing bacteria. For nitrite-oxidizing bacteria, Nitrospira was not evidently affected, whereas Nitrobacter was eliminated from the system. Salt accumulation also caused significant shifts in denitrifying bacterial community from α- to γ-Proteobacteria members. Overall, the microbial community adapted to the elevated salinity conditions and brought about a rapid recovery of the biological activity. Membrane fouling occurred but was insignificant. Biofouling and inorganic scaling coexisted, with magnesium/calcium phosphate/carbonate compounds identified as the inorganic foulants.

Direct phosphorus recovery from municipal wastewater via osmotic membrane bioreactor (OMBR) for wastewater treatment.

This work reports, for the first time, a new approach to direct phosphorus recovery from municipal wastewater via an osmotic membrane bioreactor (OMBR). In the OMBR, organic matter and NH4(+) were removed by biological activities. PO4(3)(-), Ca(2+), Mg(2+) and unconverted NH4(+) were rejected by the forward osmosis (FO) membrane and enriched within the bioreactor. The resultant phosphorus-rich supernatant was then used for phosphorus recovery. By adjusting the pH to 8.0-9.5, PO4(3)(-) was recovered via precipitation with Ca(2+), Mg(2+) and NH4(+). The OMBR showed up to 98% overall removal of TOC and NH4(+)-N. At pH 9.0, more than 95% PO4(3)(-)-P was recovered without addition of magnesium and calcium. The precipitates were predominantly amorphous calcium phosphate (ACP) with phosphorus content >11.0%. In principal, this process can recover almost all the phosphorus, apart from the portion assimilated by bacteria. The global phosphorus recovery efficiency was shown to be 50% over 84 days.

Direct and Complete Phosphorus Recovery from Municipal Wastewater Using a Hybrid Microfiltration-Forward Osmosis Membrane Bioreactor Process with Seawater Brine as Draw Solution

We report a hybrid microfiltration-forward osmosis membrane bioreactor (MF-FOMBR) for direct phosphorus recovery from municipal wastewater in the course of its treatment. In the process, a forward osmosis (FO) membrane and a microfiltration (MF) membrane are operated in parallel in a bioreactor. FO membrane rejects the nutrients (e.g., PO4(3-), Ca(2+), Mg(2+), etc.) and results in their enrichment in the bioreactor. The nutrients are subsequently extracted via the MF membrane. Phosphorus is then recovered from the nutrients enriched MF permeate via precipitation without addition of an external source of calcium or magnesium. The use of seawater brine as a draw solution (DS) is another novel aspect of the system. The process achieved 90% removal of total organic carbon and 99% removal of NH4(+)-N. 97.9% of phosphate phosphorus (PO4(3-)-P) was rejected by the FO membrane and enriched within the bioreactor. >90% phosphorus recovery was achieved at pH 9.0. The precipitates were predominantly amorphous calcium phosphate with a phosphorus content of 11.1-13.3%. In principal, this process can recover almost all the phosphorus, apart from that assimilated by bacteria for growth. Global evaluation showed an overall phosphorus recovery of 71.7% over 98 days.

Effects of ZnO nanoparticles on wastewater treatment and their removal behavior in a membrane bioreactor

Long-term effects of ZnO nanoparticles on the system performance of an MBR were investigated together with their removal behavior in the system. Continuous operation over 242days showed that ZnO NPs at both 1.0 and 10.0mg/L caused moderate deterioration in the removal of COD, nitrogen and phosphorus. Denitrification was affected upon the exposure but recovered subsequently. Although no significant acute effect on ammonia-oxidization was observed, permanent inhibition occurred after long-term exposure. Nitrite-oxidization was not affected even with 10.0mg/L ZnO NPs. Significant changes were observed in activated sludge properties which resulted in severe membrane fouling. Although ZnO NPs caused changes in the bacteria community structure, the diversity however remain unchanged. ZnO NPs was removed effectively in the MBR (>98%) with biosorption being a major removal mechanism. Membrane filtration also played an important role (20% of the total removal) especially at high ZnO NPs concentrations (around 10.0mg/L).

Towards high through-put biological treatment of municipal wastewater and enhanced phosphorus recovery using a hybrid microfiltration-forward osmosis membrane bioreactor with hydraulic retention time in sub-hour level.

This work uncovers an important feature of the forward osmosis membrane bioreactor (FOMBR) process: the decoupling of contaminants retention time (CRT) and hydraulic retention time (HRT). Based on this concept, the capability of the hybrid microfiltration-forward osmosis membrane bioreactor (MF-FOMBR) in achieving high through-put treatment of municipal wastewater with enhanced phosphorus recovery was explored. High removal of TOC and NH4(+)-N (90% and 99%, respectively) was achieved with HRTs down to 47min, with the treatment capacity increased by an order of magnitude. Reduced HRT did not affect phosphorus removal and recovery. As a result, the phosphorus recovery capacity was also increased by the same order. Reduced HRT resulted in increased system loading rates and thus elevated concentrations of mixed liquor suspended solids and increased membrane fouling. 454-pyrosequecing suggested the thriving of Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria (especially Sphingobacteriales Flavobacteriales and Thiothrix members), as well as the community succession and dynamics of ammonium oxidizing and nitrite oxidizing bacteria.

Influence of reflux ratio on two-stage anoxic/oxic with MBR for leachate treatment: Performance and microbial community structure

A lab-scale two-stage Anoxic/Oxic with MBR (AO/AO-MBR) system was operated for 81 days for leachate treatment with different reflux ratio (R). The best system performances were observed with a R value of 150%, and the average removal efficiencies of chemical oxygen demand, ammonia and total nitrogen were 85.6%, 99.1%, and 77.6%, respectively. The microbial community were monitored and evaluated using high-throughput sequencing. Proteobacteria were dominant in all process. Phylogenetic trees were described at species level, genus Thiopseudomonas, Amaricoccus, Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter played significant roles in nitrogen removal. Co-occurrence analyzing top 20 genera showed that Nitrosomonas-Nitrobacter presented perfect positive relationship, as well as Paracoccus-Brevundimonas and Pusillimonas-Halobacteriovorax.

Effects of CeO2 nanoparticles on system performance and bacterial community dynamics in a sequencing batch reactor.

The effects of CeO2 nanoparticles (NPs) on the system performance and the bacterial community dynamics in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) were investigated, along with the fate and removal of CeO2 NPs within the SBR. Significant impact was observed on nitrification; NH4+-N removal efficiency decreased from almost 100% to around 70% after 6 days of continuous exposure to 1.0 mg/L of CeO2 NPs, followed by a gradual recovery until a stable value of around 90% after 20 days. Additionally, CeO2 NPs also led to a significant increase in the protein content in the soluble microbial products, showing the disruptive effects of CeO2 NPs on the extracellular polymeric substance matrix and related activated sludge structure. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis analysis showed remarkable changes in the bacterial community structure in the activated sludge after exposure to CeO2 NPs. CeO2 NPs were effectively removed in the SBR mainly via sorption onto the sludge. However, the removal efficiency decreased from 95 to 80% over 30 days. Mass balance evaluation showed that up to 50% of the NPs were accumulated within the activated sludge and were removed with the waste sludge.