Effects of octahedral molecular sieve on treatment performance, microbial metabolism, and microbial community in expanded granular sludge bed reactor

Fei Pan, Aihua Xu, Dongsheng Xia, Yang Yu, Guo Chen, Melissa Meyer, Dongye Zhao, Ching-Hua Huang, Qihang Wu, Jie Fu

School of Environmental Engineering, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan 430073, China.

Abstract

This study evaluated the effects of synthesized octahedral molecular sieve (OMS-2) nanoparticles on the anaerobic microbial community in a model digester, expanded granular sludge bed (EGSB) reactor. The addition of OMS-2 (0.025 g/L) in the EGSB reactors resulted in an enhanced operational performance, i.e., COD removal and biogas production increased by 4% and 11% respectively, and effluent volatile fatty acid (VFA) decreased by 11% relative to the control group. The Biolog EcoPlate™ test was employed to investigate microbial metabolism in the EGSB reactors. Results showed that OMS-2 not only increased the microbial metabolic level but also significantly changed the community level physiological profiling of the microorganisms. The Illumina MiSeq high-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA gene indicated OMS-2 enhanced the microbial diversity and altered the community structure. The largest bacterial genus Lactococcus, a lactic acid bacterium, reduced from 29.3% to 20.4% by abundance in the presence of 0.25 g/L OMS-2, which may be conducive to decreasing the VFA production and increasing the microbial diversity. OMS-2 also increased the quantities of acetogenic bacteria and Archaea, and promoted the acetogenesis and methanogenesis. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy illustrated that Mn(IV)/Mn(III) with high redox potential in OMS-2 were reduced to Mn(II) in the EGSB reactors; this in turn affected the microbial community.

Graphical abstract

Keywords: Manganese; Nanoparticles; Lactic acid bacteria; High-throughput sequencing; Anaerobic digestion; Microbial metabolism.