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Performance and microbial community of a novel combined anaerobic bioreactor integrating anaerobic baffling and anaerobic filtration process for low-strength rural wastewater treatment

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Abstract

A novel combined bioreactor integrating anaerobic baffling and anaerobic filtration process was developed and operated for 210 days to treat low-strength rural wastewater. The effects of hydraulic residence time (HRT) and organic loading rate (OLR) on chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal and methane (CH4) production of the combined bioreactor were investigated. The combined bioreactor can start up successfully in 25 days and achieve enhanced performance. The COD removal rate and CH4 yield were influenced significantly by HRT and OLR. The influent COD was removed effectively through the synergistic effects of the anaerobic baffling and anaerobic filtration. The baffle zone played the main role in the degradation of the pollutants, and the filter zone mainly contributed to improve the resistance to shock loading. High-throughput sequencing technology was used to analyze the bacterial and archaeal community structure and diversity. Clostridium_sensu_stricto, Longilinea, Acetoanaerobium, Arcobacter, and Acinetobacter were found to be the dominant bacteria. While Methanothrix and Methanoregula were the dominant archaea, which were responsible for methane generation. This study not only highlights the good energy recovery and resource utilization potential of the combined bioreactor but also presents significant guidance for the application of the combined anaerobic process for low-strength rural wastewater treatment.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the Science and Technology Major Projects of China’s “13th Five-Year Plan” under the Water Pollution Control and Governance (2017ZX07102004-005).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing Engineering Research Center of Sustainable Urban Sewage System Construction and Risk Control, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Beijing, 100044, China

    Jianwei Liu, Xueli Liu, Liutang Gao, Song Xu, Xuewei Chen, Hongyu Tian & Xinyue Kang

  2. School of Environment and Energy Engineering, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Beijing, 100044, China

    Jianwei Liu, Xueli Liu, Song Xu, Xuewei Chen, Hongyu Tian & Xinyue Kang

  3. Shijiazhuang Yiling Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Shijiazhuang, 050035, China

    Liutang Gao

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  1. Jianwei Liu
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Correspondence to Jianwei Liu.

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Liu, J., Liu, X., Gao, L. et al. Performance and microbial community of a novel combined anaerobic bioreactor integrating anaerobic baffling and anaerobic filtration process for low-strength rural wastewater treatment. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 18743–18756 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-08263-9

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