Lei Zhen, Zheng Jiale, Luo Hong, Li Yu-You, Chen Rong
School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology, No.13 Yanta Road, Xi'an 710055, P. R. China.
Key Laboratory of Northwest Water Resource, Environment and Ecology, MOE, Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology, No.13 Yanta Road, Xi'an 710055, P. R. China.
Environ Sci Technol. 2025 Jul 22;59(28):14518-14527. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.5c01995. Epub 2025 Jun 25.
Conventional anaerobic biological technologies face severe challenges in removing steroid estrogens (SEs) because of the absence of electron acceptors under anaerobic conditions. In this study, an electrochemical anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AneMBR) was developed to efficiently remove 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2) in wastewater while recovering chemical energy as methane. The average EE2 removal efficiency reached 83.1% in AneMBR, attributed primarily to significantly enhanced biodegradation, which demonstrates the advantages of this technology. The degradation kinetics results showed an 83.6% increase in the EE2 biodegradation rate by planktonic sludge under a 0.8 V electric field, along with enhanced sorption capacity, microbial activity, and c-type cytochrome secretion. The electric field provides supplemental energy for microbial metabolism, strengthens the conversion of EE2 into estradiol and estrone, and further converts them to low-endocrine-disrupting small-molecule organic compounds. These results were further confirmed by the upregulation of the functional genes involved in EE2 metabolism. This study develops a promising technology for improving SE removal in anaerobic methane fermentation systems and elaborates on the significance and metabolic mechanisms of planktonic sludge in electrically strengthened biotreatment systems for SE removal.
传统厌氧生物技术在去除类固醇雌激素（SEs）方面面临严峻挑战，因为在厌氧条件下缺乏电子受体。在本研究中，开发了一种电化学厌氧膜生物反应器（AneMBR），以有效去除废水中的17α-乙炔基雌二醇（EE2），同时将化学能回收为甲烷。AneMBR中EE2的平均去除效率达到83.1%，这主要归因于生物降解的显著增强，证明了该技术的优势。降解动力学结果表明，在0.8V电场下，浮游污泥对EE2的生物降解速率提高了83.6%，同时吸附能力、微生物活性和c型细胞色素分泌增强。电场为微生物代谢提供补充能量，加强EE2向雌二醇和雌酮的转化，并进一步将它们转化为低内分泌干扰的小分子有机化合物。参与EE2代谢的功能基因上调进一步证实了这些结果。本研究开发了一种有前景的技术，用于改善厌氧甲烷发酵系统中SE的去除，并阐述了浮游污泥在电强化生物处理系统中去除SE的意义和代谢机制。
