Kyung-Min Yeon

Enzyme-Immobilized Nanofiltration Membrane To Mitigate Biofouling Based on Quorum Quenching

Recently, enzymatic quorum quenching (in the form of a free enzyme or an immobilized form on a bead) was successfully applied to a submerged membrane bioreactor with a microfiltration membrane for wastewater treatment as a novel approach to control membrane biofouling. In this study, a quorum quenching enzyme (acylase) was directly immobilized onto a nanofiltration membrane to mitigate biofouling in a nanofiltration process. In a flow cell experiment, the acylase-immobilized membrane with quorum quenching activity prohibited the formation of mushroom-shaped mature biofilm due to the reduced secretion of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). The acylase-immobilized membrane maintained more than 90% of its initial enzyme activity for more than 20 iterative cycles of reaction and washing procedure. In the lab-scale continuous crossflow nanofiltration system operated at a constant pressure of 2 bar, the flux with the acylase-immobilized nanofiltration (NF) membrane was maintained at more than 90% of its initial flux after a 38-h operation, whereas that with the raw NF membrane decreased to 60% accompanied with severe biofouling. The quorum quenching activity of the acylase-immobilized membrane was also confirmed by visualizing the spatial distribution of cells and polysaccharides on the surface of each membrane using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) image analysis technique.

Biofouling control with bead-entrapped quorum quenching bacteria in membrane bioreactors: physical and biological effects.

Recently, interspecies quorum quenching by bacterial cells encapsulated in a vessel was described and shown to be efficient and economically feasible for biofouling control in membrane bioreactors (MBRs). In this study, free-moving beads entrapped with quorum quenching bacteria were applied to the inhibition of biofouling in a MBR. Cell entrapping beads (CEBs) with a porous microstructure were prepared by entrapping quorum quenching bacteria ( Rhodococcus sp. BH4) into alginate beads. In MBRs provided with CEBs, the time to reach a transmembrane pressure (TMP) of 70 kPa was 10 times longer than without CEBs. The mitigation of biofouling was attributed to both physical (friction) and biological (quorum quenching) effects of CEBs, the latter being much more important. Because of the quorum quenching effect of CEBs, microbial cells in the biofilm generated fewer extracellular polymeric substances and thus formed a loosely bound biofilm, which enabled it to slough off from the membrane surface more easily. Furthermore, collisions between the moving CEBs and membranes gave rise to frictional forces that facilitated detachment of the biofilm from the membrane surface. CEBs bring bacterial quorum quenching closer to being a practical solution to the problem of biofouling in MBRs.

Biofilm Structure and Extracellular Polymeric Substances in Low and High Dissolved Oxygen Membrane Bioreactors

Abstract This paper discusses the effect of dissolved oxygen (DO) on the biofilm structure in membrane bioreactor (MBR) and their consequence on membrane permeability and EPS. Two MBRs under high DO (6.0 mg/L, HDO) and low DO (<0.1 mg/L, LDO) were operated in parallel under same hydrodynamic conditions. The microbiological aspects in MBR systems were explored through a series of analysis techniques including PCR‐DGGE, gel filtration chromatography (GFC), confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM), and image analysis. The rate of membrane fouling for the LDO MBR was 5 times faster than that for the HDO MBR. The microbial communities between HDO and LDO MBR were quite different, which is likely to be the reason for different structures and permeabilities of the biofilms. The specific biofilm resistance in HDO MBR was lower to that in LDO MBR. This is attributed to relatively lower porosity and higher amount of EPS for the biofilm in LDO MBR. The distributions of cell and EPS were not uniform in the biofilms in both HDO and LDO MBR. The biofilm in LDO MBR contained larger amount of EPS than that in HDO MBR. The ratio of protein to polysaccharide was also higher for biofilm in HDO MBR than in LDO MBR.

Microbial population dynamics and proteomics in membrane bioreactors with enzymatic quorum quenching

Quorum sensing gives rise to biofilm formation on the membrane surface, which in turn causes a loss of water permeability in membrane bioreactors (MBRs) for wastewater treatment. Enzymatic quorum quenching was reported to successfully inhibit the formation of biofilm in MBRs through the decomposition of signal molecules, N-acyl homoserine lactones (AHLs). The aim of this study was to elucidate the mechanisms of quorum quenching in more detail in terms of microbial population dynamics and proteomics. Microbial communities in MBRs with and without a quorum quenching enzyme (acylase) were analyzed using pyrosequencing and compared with each other. In the quorum quenching MBR, the rate of transmembrane pressure (TMP) rise-up was delayed substantially, and the proportion of quorum sensing bacteria with AHL-like autoinducers (such as Enterobacter, Pseudomonas, and Acinetobacter) also decreased in the entire microbial community of mature biofilm in comparison to that in the control MBR. These factors were attributed to the lower production of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), which are known to play a key role in the formation of biofilm. Proteomic analysis using the Enterobacter cancerogenus strain ATCC 35316 demonstrates the possible depression of protein expression related to microbial attachments to solid surfaces (outer membrane protein, flagellin) and the agglomeration of microorganisms (ATP synthase beta subunit) with the enzymatic quorum quenching. It has been argued that changes in the microbial population, EPS and proteins via enzymatic quorum quenching could inhibit the formation of biofilm, resulting in less biofouling in the quorum quenching MBR.

Analysis of filtration characteristics in submerged microfiltration for drinking water treatment.

Hollow fiber membranes have been widely employed for water and wastewater treatments. Nevertheless, understanding the filtration characteristics of hollow fiber membranes is complicated by the axial distributions of transmembrane pressure (TMP) and flux, which are key factors for both fouling control and module design. In this study, model equations to account for different fouling mechanisms were derived to analyze the performance of submerged hollow fiber systems with different conditions in terms of feed water characteristics and membrane material. A series of experiments with synthetic feed and raw water were carried out using hydrophilic and hydrophobic membrane modules. The model successfully fits the experimental results for synthetic feed as well as raw water. The major fouling mechanisms for filtration of raw water using hydrophilic and hydrophobic membranes are identified as cake formation and standard blocking, respectively. The model calculations indicate that the distributions of flux and cake (fouling) resistance are sensitive to the fiber length of the membrane.

Evaluation of mechanical membrane cleaning with moving beads in MBR using Box–Behnken response surface methodology

AbstractIncorporation of moving beads into membrane bioreactor (MBR) has been suggested as an effective membrane fouling control because moving beads can mechanically remove bio-cakes on the membrane surface without additional equipment and energy input. As the efficiency of fouling control is dependent on factors associated with moving beads, however, the design of experiment was applied to find optimum condition for the effective mechanical cleaning with moving beads in MBR. Bead diameter (mm), bead number, and aeration rate (m3/h) were selected as independent design parameters. Based on batch test results, the correlation between the detachment efficiency of bio-cakes and three design parameters was established using Box–Behnken methodology. When all three design parameters at their optimal conditions (beadopt) were extended to the continuous lab-scale MBR, membrane filterability increased by three times, compared with that in the control MBR without bead. On the other hand, each of five experimental s...

Effect of PAC Addition on the Physicochemical Characteristics of Bio-Cake in a Membrane Bioreactor

The effect of powdered activated carbon (PAC) addition on the architecture and cohesion strength of bio-cake in a membrane bioreactor (MBR) was investigated. Two reactors, a conventional MBR and a membrane-coupled biological activated carbon reactor (MBR ac ), were run in parallel. The addition of PAC led to a substantial increase in membrane permeability. Based on the conventional filtration theory, microbial floc size (d), bio-cake porosity (ε), and total attached biomass (TAB) were determined to find the key mechanism for the enhanced permeability. Unexpectedly the addition of PAC did not significantly change either the microbial floc size (d) or the porosity (ε) of the bio-cake. It decreased, however, not only the concentration of extra-cellular polymeric substances (EPS) in the bulk phase but also the TAB on the membrane. Using a separate batch cohesion test, it was revealed that the cohesion strength between microorganisms in the bio-cake in the MBR ac was weaker than that in the MBR. The addition of PAC led to the reduction of EPS, which act as glue-like materials, which in turn weakened the cohesion strength of the microorganisms. This resulted in a lower amount of TAB, i.e., a smaller amount of the bio-cake on the membrane, which ultimately gave rise to the enhanced permeability in the MBR ac .