RT Journal Article
T1 How efficiently does a metabolically enhanced system with denitrifying anaerobic methane oxidizing microorganisms remove antibiotics?
A1 Quiton-Tapia, Silvana
A1 Balboa Méndez, Sabela
A1 Omil Prieto, Francisco
A1 Garrido Fernández, Juan Manuel
A1 Suárez Martínez, Sonia
K1 Organic micropollutants
K1 N-Damo bacteria
K1 Specific biomass activity
K1 Anoxic conditions
K1 Removal of antibiotics
AB In this work, the novel N-damo (Nitrite dependent anaerobic methane oxidation) process was investigated at high biomass activities for its potential to remove simultaneously nitrite and methane, as well as selected antibiotics commonly found in sewage in trace amounts. For this purpose, two MBRs were operated at three high nitrite loading rates (NLRs), namely 76 ± 9.9, 161.5 ± 11.4 and 215.2 ± 24.2 mg N–NO⁻2 L−1 d−1, at long-term operation. The MBRs performance achieved a significantly high nitrite removal activity for an N-damo process (specific denitrifying activity of up to 540 mg N–NO⁻2 g−1 VSS d−1), even comparable to heterotrophic denitrification values. In this study, we have implemented a novel operational strategy that sets our work apart from previous studies with similar bioreactors. Specifically, we have introduced Cerium as a trace element in the feeding medium, which serves as a key differentiating factor. It allowed maintaining a stable reactor operation at high NLRs. Microbial community composition evidenced that both MBRs were dominated with N-damo bacteria (67–87% relative abundance in period III and I, respectively). However, a decrease in functional N-damo bacteria (Candidatus Methylomirabilis) abundance was observed during the increase in biomass activity and concentration, concomitantly with an increase of the other minor families (Hypomicrobiaceae and Xanthobacteraceae). Most of the selected antibiotics showed high biotransformation such as sulfamethoxazole, trimethoprim, cefalexin and azithromycin, whereas others such as roxithromycin and clarithromycin were only partially degraded (20–35%). On the contrary, ciprofloxacin showed almost no removal. Despite the metabolic enhancement, no apparent increase on the antibiotic removal was observed throughout the operation, suggesting that microbiological composition was of greater influence than its primary metabolic activity on the removal of antibiotics
PB Elsevier
SN 0269-7491
YR 2023
FD 2023-06-21
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10347/31016
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10347/31016
LA eng
NO Environmental Pollution, 334 (2023) 122033
NO This research was supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the project NOWELTIES, through the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement 812880, as well as the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, Spain through ANTARES (PID 2019-110346RB-C21) project. Authors belong to CRETUS Strategic Partnership (AGRUP 2015/02) and to Galician Competitive Research Group (GRC ED431C-2021/37)
DS Minerva
RD 24 abr 2026