Role of methanogenesis on the biotransformation of organic micropollutants during anaerobic digestion

Abstract

Several studies showed that some organic micropollutants (OMPs) are biotransformed during anaerobic digestion (AD). Yet, most of them aim at reporting removal efficiencies instead of understanding the biotransformation process. Indeed, how each of the main AD stages (i.e., hydrolysis, acidogenesis, and methanogenesis) contribute to OMP biotransformation remains unknown. This study focuses on investigating the role of methanogenesis, the most characteristic step of AD, to OMP removal. More specifically, the sorption and the biotransformation of 20 OMPs by methanogenic biomass were analyzed determining their concentrations in both liquid and solid phases. Sorption onto methanogenic biomass displayed a similar behavior as reported for digested sludge. Most of the OMPs were biotransformed to a medium extent (35–70%) and only sulfamethoxazole was completely removed. Comparing these results with those reported for the complete AD process, methanogenesis was proven to play a key role, accounting for more than 50% of the OMP biotransformation (except for roxithromycin) during AD. An increase in the organic loading rate from 1 to 2 g COD/L d, typical loads employed in sewage sludge anaerobic digesters, did not exert a clear cometabolic effect on the OMPs biotransformation. It is hypothesized that biotransformation occurs in both liquid and solid phases because no link between the partition coefficient (Kd) and the overall biotransformation efficiency was found. These findings allow a better understanding of the OMPs fate under anaerobic conditions, which is necessary to design efficient biological mitigation strategies