scholarly journals Can DNA sequencing show differences between microbial communities in Polish and Danish wastewater treatment plants?

2017 ◽  
Vol 75 (6) ◽  
pp. 1447-1454 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Miłobędzka ◽  
A. Muszyński

The microbial populations in the activated sludge of two Polish wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) were identified and quantified using Illumina sequencing of 16S ribosomal RNA amplicons over a 2-year period. Their dynamics over time were compared to Danish WWTPs (data collected in previous studies by Center for Microbial Communities, Aalborg University). The bacterial communities in Polish and Danish WWTPs were similar to each other, but the microbial diversity in Polish WWTPs was lower. The dominant genera in Polish WWTPs were more abundant than in Danish WWTPs; 30 of them constituted more than half the of activated sludge community. Polish WWTPs showed a higher abundance of bacteria involved in nitrogen and chemical oxygen demand removal (Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes), while polyphosphate-acculumating bacteria were the dominant bacterial group in Danish plants. The microbial community structures in the examined Polish WWTPs were relatively similar to each other and showed strong seasonal variations which are not normally observed in Danish WWTPs.

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Young Kyung Kim ◽  
Keunje Yoo ◽  
Min Sung Kim ◽  
Il Han ◽  
Minjoo Lee ◽  
...  

Abstract Bacterial communities in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) affect plant functionality through their role in the removal of pollutants from wastewater. Bacterial communities vary extensively based on plant operating conditions and influent characteristics. The capacity of WWTPs can also affect the bacterial community via variations in the organic or nutrient composition of the influent. Despite the importance considering capacity, the characteristics that control bacterial community assembly are largely unknown. In this study, we discovered that bacterial communities in WWTPs in Korea and Vietnam, which differ remarkably in capacity, exhibit unique structures and interactions that are governed mainly by the capacity of WWTPs. Bacterial communities were analysed using 16S rRNA gene sequencing and exhibited clear differences between the two regions, with these differences being most pronounced in activated sludge. We found that capacity contributed the most to bacterial interactions and community structure, whereas other factors had less impact. Co-occurrence network analysis showed that microorganisms from high-capacity WWTPs are more interrelated than those from low-capacity WWTPs, which corresponds to the tighter clustering of bacterial communities in Korea. These results will contribute to the understanding of bacterial community assembly in activated sludge processing.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 515-527
Author(s):  
L. Desa ◽  
P. Kängsepp ◽  
L. Quadri ◽  
G. Bellotti ◽  
K. Sørensen ◽  
...  

Abstract Many wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) in touristic areas struggle to achieve the effluent requirements due to seasonal variations in population. In alpine areas, the climate also determines a low wastewater temperature, which implies long sludge retention time (SRT) needed for the growth of nitrifying biomass in conventional activated sludge (CAS). Moreover, combined sewers generate high flow and dilution. The present study shows how the treatment efficiency of an existing CAS plant with tertiary treatment can be upgraded by adding a compact line in parallel, consisting of a Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor (MBBR)-coagulation-flocculation-disc filtration. This allows the treatment of influent variations in the MBBR and a constant flow supply to the activated sludge. The performance of the new 2-step process was comparable to that of the improved existing one. Regardless significant variations in flow (10,000–25,000 m3/d) and total suspended solids (TSS) (50–300 mg/L after primary treatment) the effluent quality fulfilled the discharge requirements. Based on yearly average effluent data, TSS were 11 mg/L, chemical oxygen demand (COD) 27 mg/L and total phosphorus (TP) 0.8 mg/L. After the upgrade, ammonium nitrogen (NH4-N) dropped from 4.9 mg/L to 1.3 mg/L and the chemical consumption for phosphorus removal was reduced.


2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 3579-3589
Author(s):  
Mateusz Sobczyk ◽  
Agnieszka Pajdak-Stós ◽  
Edyta Fiałkowska ◽  
Łukasz Sobczyk ◽  
Janusz Fyda

AbstractWe investigated changes in protozoa and metazoa community in relation to process parameters in activated sludge from four wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) throughout the period of 1 year. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that activated sludge from investigated treatment plants had different dominating species representatives and community composition mainly depends on individual features of the treatment plants. Redundancy analysis (RDA) showed that the temperature in bioreactors was the most relevant factor explaining changes in the microorganism community, whereas reduction rate of chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD5), suspended solids (SS), and total nitrogen (TN) did not sufficiently explain the variation in protozoa and metazoan community composition. The results indicate that in stable working WWTP it is difficult to find a pronounced link between activated sludge species composition, process parameters, and plant configuration. Applied multivariate analysis can be a valuable tool for the exploration of the relations between community composition and WWTP process parameters.


2013 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 199-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marketa Julinova ◽  
Jan Kupec ◽  
Roman Slavik ◽  
Maria Vaskova

Abstract A synthetic polymer, polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP - E 1201) primarily finds applications in the pharmaceutical and food industries due to its resistance and zero toxicity to organisms. After ingestion, the substance passes through the organism unchanged. Consequently, it enters the systems of municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) without decomposing biologically during the waste treatment process, nor does it attach (through sorption) to particles of activated sludge to any significant extent, therefore, it passes through the system of a WWTP, which may cause the substance to accumulate in the natural environment. For this reason the paper investigates the potential to initiate aerobic biodegradation of PVP in the presence of activated sludge from a municipal wastewater treatment plant. The following agents were selected as the initiators of the biodegradation process - co-substrates: acrylamide, N-acethylphenylalanine and 1-methyl-2-pyrrolidone, a substance with a similar structure to PVP monomer. The biodegradability of PVP in the presence of co-substrates was evaluated on the basis of biological oxygen demand (BOD) as determined via a MicroOxymax O2/CO2/CH4 respirometer. The total substrate concentration in the suspension equaled 400 mg·dm-3, with the ratio between PVP and the cosubstrate being 1:1, while the concentration of the dry activated sludge was 500 mg·dm-3. Even though there was no occurrence of a significant increase in the biodegradation of PVP alone in the presence of a co-substrate, acrylamide appeared to be the most effective type of co-substrate. Nevertheless, a recorded decrease in the slope of biodegradation curves over time may indicate that a process of primary decomposition was underway, which involves the production of metabolites that inhibit activated sludge microorganisms. The resulting products are not identified at this stage of experimentation.


Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 1539 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justyna Michalska ◽  
Izabela Greń ◽  
Joanna Żur ◽  
Daniel Wasilkowski ◽  
Agnieszka Mrozik

Hauling landfill leachate to offsite urban wastewater treatment plants is a way to achieve pollutant removal. However, the implementation of biological methods for the treatment of landfill leachate can be extremely challenging. This study aims to investigate the effect of blending wastewater with 3.5% and 5.5% of the industrial leachate from the Kalina pond (KPL) on the performance of sequencing batch reactor (SBR) and capacity of activated sludge microorganisms. The results showed that the removal efficiency of the chemical oxygen demand declined in the contaminated SBR from 100% to 69% and, subsequently, to 41% after the cotreatment with 3.5% and 5.5% of the pollutant. In parallel, the activities of the dehydrogenases and nonspecific esterases declined by 58% and 39%, and 79% and 81% after 32 days of the exposure of the SBR to 3.5% and 5.5% of the leachate, respectively. Furthermore, the presence of the KPL in the sewage affected the sludge microorganisms through a reduction in their functional capacity as well as a decrease in the percentages of the marker fatty acids for different microbial groups. A multifactorial analysis of the parameters relevant for the wastewater treatment process confirmed unambiguously the negative impact of the leachate on the operation, activity, and structure of the activated sludge.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 665-680
Author(s):  
Lei Zhang ◽  
Yanan Cheng ◽  
Chang Qian ◽  
Wenxuan Lu

Abstract Sewage pollution is a major threat to public health because sewage is always accompanied by pathogens. Generally, wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) receive and treat sewage to control pathogenic risks and improve environmental health. This study investigated the changes in the bacterial community over the course of treatment by a WWTP. Illumina MiSeq high-throughput sequencing was performed to characterize the bacterial communities in the WWTP. This study found that potential pathogens in the WWTP, especially the genera Arcobacter and Acinetobacter, were greatly reduced. In addition, high chemical oxygen demand levels provided excessive growth substrates for the genera Hyphomicrobium and Rhodoplanes, the abundance of which could exceed autotrophic bacteria, increasing the ammonium removal. According to the network analysis, the bacterial assemblage was not randomly arranged in the WWTP, and various defined processes led to higher intra-phylum (such as Proteobacteria) coexistence than expected. Moreover, the metabolic functions of bacterial communities significantly improved in the WWTP compared with the influent. Together, the data in this study emphasize the need to understand the bacterial community of WWTPs better. When analyzing the risks of WWTP drainage systems to the environment and human health, these data should be considered.


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