Zhang Haifeng, Zhang Yi, Li Lin, Huang Shujuan, Ma Weiwei, Xu Boyan, Ng How Yong, Kim Dong-Hoon, Kang Seoktae, Shi Xueqing
National and Local & Joint Engineering Research Center for Urban Sewage Treatment and Resource Recycling, School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Qingdao University of Technology, 11 Fushun Road, Qingdao, 266033, China.
Centre for Water Research, Advanced Institute of National Sciences, Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai, 519087, China.
J Environ Manage. 2025 Apr;379:124800. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.124800. Epub 2025 Mar 7.
In this study, a novel high-rate moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) was constructed to enhance wastewater COD bio-conversion and biopolymer recovery with a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 1.0 h and an organic loading rate (OLR) of 4.8 kg COD·m·d. A superior specific COD reduction rate of 4.1 kg COD·m·d was obtained. The settleability analyses showed that within a settling time of 30 min, a low effluent suspended solids (SS) concentration (40.6 mg/L) with a high biomass recovery rate (83.3%) was achieved. From the recovered biomass, a remarkably higher alginate-like exopolymer (ALE) yield (274.2-385.1 mg/g VSS) was extracted as compared with seeding sludge (148.3 mg/g VSS). In addition, high protein/polysaccharide ratios of 8.5-12.4 were revealed owing to the short HRT condition. Moreover, key functional genes involving classic ALE synthesis were fully detected in such mixed-cultured bioprocess through metagenomic sequencing. Overall, this study offers a proof of concept that bio-refinery of organics into value-added biopolymers could provide a promising direction for the transformation of wastewater treatment plants from energy/resource-consuming factories to resource-recovery factories.
在本研究中，构建了一种新型高速移动床生物膜反应器（MBBR），以在水力停留时间（HRT）为1.0小时、有机负荷率（OLR）为4.8 kg COD·m⁻³·d⁻¹的条件下提高废水化学需氧量（COD）的生物转化和生物聚合物回收。获得了4.1 kg COD·m⁻³·d⁻¹的优异比COD去除率。沉降性能分析表明，在30分钟的沉降时间内，实现了低出水悬浮固体（SS）浓度（40.6 mg/L）和高生物量回收率（83.3%）。从回收的生物量中，与接种污泥（148.3 mg/g VSS）相比，提取出了显著更高的藻酸盐样胞外聚合物（ALE）产量（274.2 - 385.1 mg/g VSS）。此外，由于短HRT条件，揭示了8.5 - 12.4的高蛋白/多糖比。此外，通过宏基因组测序在这种混合培养生物过程中充分检测到了涉及经典ALE合成的关键功能基因。总体而言，本研究提供了一个概念验证，即有机物质生物精炼为增值生物聚合物可为废水处理厂从能源/资源消耗型工厂转变为资源回收型工厂提供一个有前景的方向。
