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This study focused on the effects of plant compositions on removal rates of pollutants in microcosms through investigating rhizosphere microbial populations, photosynthetic efficiency and growth characteristics. Mixed-culture groups improved the removal efficiency of TN and TP significantly but exhibited lower COD removal rates. Total plant biomasses were improved as the species richness increased, but the N/P content in the plants was mainly affected by the type of species. The mixed-culture groups showed lower photosynthesis rates and oxygen supply generated from roots under high irradiation. Microbial communities of the cultured groups in the rhizosphere exhibited significant differences. According to principal component analysis (PCA), the fungi were the typical microbes of SPA, SPAB, and SPABC, resulted in improvement in nutrient accumulation. These results demonstrated that a mixed culture strategy can represent the overyielding of biomass, promote the photo-protection mechanism, and will further increase the removal rates of pollutants in a constructed wetland.

Abstract Ferric chloride (FC) is widely used in sewage treatment and sludge conditioning, which could be inevitably accumulated in waste-activated sludge (WAS). However, its effect on short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) production from WAS anaerobic fermentation has yet to be thoroughly investigated. This study aims to reveal how different dosages of FC affect the production of SCFAs and elucidate the corresponding mechanism. Experimental results showed that 16 mg Fe/g total suspended solids (TSS) of FC was favorable for SCFAs production, with the maximum production was 3.3 times of the control. Mechanistic study revealed that FC induced dissimilatory iron reduction (DIR) and enhanced hydrolase activities, contributing to the disintegration of WAS flocs and the hydrolysis of complex organics. Moreover, FC stimulated the productivity of HAc by promoting the release of carbon-rich substrates and accepting the intermediate electrons generated in acetogenesis process. Further study indicated FC inhibited the methanogenesis and changed the acid-fermentation type by affecting pH and ORP, which was conducive to SCFAs accumulation. Microbial community analysis confirmed that FC enriched the bacterial microorganisms related to hydrolysis and acidogenesis, and increased the abundance of Fe(III)-reducing genera. However, excessive FC (>16 mg Fe/g TSS) inhibited SCFAs production, due to the strong aggregation increased mass transfer resistance and the “over-acidification” damaged the microbial community.

Microbial electrolysis cell (MECs) were investigated as a promising technology to manage waste activated sludge (WAS) reduction and bio-methane generation. The effect of WAS concentration on the MECs performance was discussed. At the optimal concentration of 15gCOD/L, maximum methane yield of MECs fed with alkaline pretreated WAS (A-WAS) were achieved with the value of 77.13±2.52LCH4/kg-COD on Day 3, which had been improved by 1.5-fold compared with MECs fed with raw WAS (R-WAS), while that was negligible in open circuit controls. Efficient sludge reduction was also obtained in terms of TCOD, total protein, TSS and VSS removal. Pyrosequencing revealed the dominance of exoelectrogen Geobacter and hydrogen-producing bacteria Petrimonas in MECs fed with WAS. Methanocorpusculum with the capacity of methane generation using CO2 and H2 also showed overwhelming dominance (96.01%). The large proportions of Petrimonas and Methanocorpusculum indicated the occurrence of hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis in our methane-producing MECs.

Abstract Fouling is one of the most significant problems for internally enhanced tubes installed in the shell and tube condensers. Due to the lack of long-term test data, current fouling models are developed based on accelerated particulate fouling tests that have the low precision and hence are inapplicable for predicting combined fouling in most practical cooling tower systems. In addition, the constant values of fouling resistance (factor) recommended by the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) are extremely limited under different operating conditions. To overcome these challenges, this research developed and validated two fouling prediction models based on experimental long-term tests. One of the models was in the form of a ratio of asymptotic fouling resistance of the enhanced tube to that of the plain tube ( R f ∗ / R f , p ∗ ), and the other one was in the form of the asymptotic fouling resistance of the directly enhanced tube ( R f ∗ ). Both models considered water quality, water velocity, and the tube geometries as the variables with the acceptable accuracy for prediction. 1) For the water quality, the parameter of valid concentration ( C com ) of cooling water was defined in this study, which reflected the potential amount of valid components to form the fouling. 2) For the water velocity, its impacts on the two critical parameters of the fouling process: sticking probability ( P ) and deposit bond strength ( ξ ) were investigated using experimental studies. Test results showed that in enhanced tubes with the increased water velocity the sticking probability ( P ) decreased continuously while the deposit bond strength (ξ) initially increased, and then, decreased. 3) For the tube geometries, by taking the parameters of tube geometries as variables the multi-variable correlations of the sticking probability ( P ) and deposit bond strength ( ξ ) were developed. From the results the generalized fouling prediction model as a ratio of asymptotic fouling resistance ( R f ∗ / R f , p ∗ ) was recommended for the application in HVAC&R industry due to its suitability and accuracy in practical project applications.

Hybrid microbial electrolysis cells-anaerobic digestion (MEC-AD) was proved to increase methane productivity and methane yield of waste activated sludge (WAS) by establishing direct interspecies electron transfer method and enriching functional microorganisms. This review first summarized the pretreatment methods of WAS for MEC-AD and then reviewed the reactor configurations, operation parameters, and the economic benefit of MEC-AD. Furthermore, the enhancement mechanisms of MEC-AD were reviewed based on the analysis of thermodynamics and microbial community. It was found that the decrease of hydrogen partial pressure due to the hydrogenotrophic methanogens enriched in cathodic biofilm and direct interspecies electron transfer between exoelectrogens and anode were the core mechanisms for improving acidogenesis, acetogenesis, and methanogenesis. Finally, the potentially technological issues that need to be addressed to increase energy efficiency in large-scale MEC-AD processes were discussed.

A laboratory-scale intermittent aeration bioreactor was investigated to treat biologically pretreated coal gasification wastewater that was mainly composed of NH3-N and phenol. The results showed that increasing phenol loading had an adverse effect on NH3-N removal; the concentration in effluent at phenol loading of 40mgphenol/(L·day) was 7.3mg/L, 36.3% of that at 200mg phenol/(L·day). The enzyme ammonia monooxygenase showed more sensitivity than hydroxylamine oxidoreductase to the inhibitory effect of phenol, with 32.2% and 10.5% activity inhibition, respectively at 200mg phenol/(L·day). Owing to intermittent aeration conditions, nitritation-type nitrification and simultaneous nitrification and denitrification (SND) were observed, giving a maximum SND efficiency of 30.5%. Additionally, ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and denitrifying bacteria were the main group identified by fluorescent in situ hybridization. However, their relative abundance represented opposite variations as phenol loading increased, ranging from 30.1% to 17.5% and 7.6% to 18.2% for AOB and denitrifying bacteria, respectively.

Four sequence batch reactors (SBRs) fed by fermented sugar cane wastewater were continuously operated under the aerobic dynamic feeding (ADF) mode with different configurations of sludge retention time (SRT), carbon and initial biomass concentrations to enrich polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) accumulating mixed microbial cultures (MMCs) from municipal activated sludge. The stability of SBRs was investigated besides the enrichment performance. The microbial community structures of the enriched MMCs were analyzed using terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP). The optimum operating conditions for the enrichment process were: SRT of 5days, carbon concentration of 2.52g COD/L and initial biomass concentration of 3.65g/L. The best enrichment performance in terms of both operating stability and PHA storage ability of enriched cultures (with the maximum PHA content and PHA storage yield (YPHA/S) of 61.26% and 0.68mg COD/mg COD, respectively) was achieved under this condition. Effects of the SRT, carbon concentration and initial biomass concentration on the PHA accumulating MMCs selection process were discussed respectively. A new model including the segmentation of the enrichment process and the effects of SRT on each phase was proposed.

Global warming is becoming more severe. We here proposed an innovative green technique aimed at reducing the CH4 emissions from constructed wetlands (CWs) in which CH4 is controlled by microbial fuel cells (MFCs). The results of our work indicated that CH4 emissions from CWs could be controlled by operating MFC. The CH4 fluxes significantly decreased in the MFC-CW (close circuit CC) compared with the control MFC-CW (open circuit OC). The bioelectricity generation and COD removal rates also differed in the two systems. The highest power density (0.27 W m-3) and the lowest CH4 emissions (4.7 mg m-2 h-1) were observed in the CC system. The plants' effects on the performance of the MFC-CWs were also investigated. The plant species had a profound impact on the CH4 emissions and electricity production in MFC-CWs. The greatest CH4 flux (9.5 mg m-2 h-1) was observed from the MFC-CW planted with Typha orientalis, while the CH4 emissions from the MFC-CW planted with Cyperus alternifolius were reduced by 45%. Additional microbial processes were investigated. Quantitative real-time PCR (q-PCR) analysis indicated that the gene abundance of eubacterial 16 S rRNA, particulate methane monooxygenase (pmoA), and methyl coenzyme M reductase (mcrA) significantly differed for the control CW and MFC-CWs planted with different plants. In the CC systems, the mcrA genes in the anode were low, while the pmoA genes in the cathode were high. The operation of MFCs in CWs changed the exoelectrogenic and methanogenic community structures. Sequencing analysis indicated that phylotypes related to Geobacter, Bacteroides, and Desulfovibrio were specifically enriched in the CC systems. The results demonstrated that the operation of MFCs in the CWs resulted in the competition between the electrogenes and methanogenes, which resulted in distinctive microbial populations and biochemical processes that suppressed the CH4 emissions from the CWs.