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Anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge (SS) is one of the effective ways to reduce the waste generated from human life activities. To date, there are many reports to improve or repress methane production during the anaerobic digestion of SS. In the anaerobic digestion process, many microorganisms work positively or negatively, and as a result of their microbe-to-microbe interaction and regulation, methane production increases or decreases. In other words, understanding the complex control mechanism among the microorganisms and identifying the strains that are key to increase or decrease methane production are important for promoting the advanced production of bioenergy and beneficial compounds. In this mini-review, the literature on methane production in anaerobic digestion has been summarized based on the results of antibiotic addition, quorum sensing control, and inorganic substance addition. By optimizing the activity of microbial groups in SS, methane or acetate can be highly produced. KEY POINTS: • Bactericidal agents such as an antibiotic alter microbial community for enhanced CH4 production. • Bacterial interaction via quorum sensing is one of the key points for biofilm and methane production. • Anaerobic digestion can be altered in the presence of several inorganic materials.

Because colony formation is essential to seek bacterial functions by the direct observation of phenotype, the diversification of colony formation for culturable bacteria is a big challenge in the research field of Environmental Biotechnology. In this study, the biodiversity of cultivable bacteria (colony or liquid culture) was compared by using Luria-Bertani (LB) medium and waste sewage sludge (WSS) under different dilutions and temperatures. When WSS was used as a bacterial source, whereas the highest number of colonies was found at the concentration of WSS (5%), a particular concentration of LB (10%) or WSS (1%) as a growth medium showed the best number of the operational taxonomic units (OTUs) of colonies. The results of bacterial community structure indicated that there are 1, 8, and 12 bacterial genera found uniquely in the agar plates of LB, 10% LB, and 5% WSS. By contrast, when palm oil mill effluent sludge was used as a bacterial source, the effect of dilution was different with WSS. When comparing the biodiversity between colonies and liquid culture, a high OTU value was observed in the colonies on the plate. In addition, 30°C showed the highest number of colonies in LB, 10% LB, and 5% WSS whereas the best OTUs were observed at 37°C for LB and 10% LB, and at 25°C for 5% WSS. This study demonstrates the diversification of cultivable bacteria through the number of OTUs in diluted LB medium and WSS, which is beneficial to isolate a unique bacterial strain. Key points • Impacts of diluted LB medium and WSS for colony formation were determined. • Difference of concentration of LB and WSS made different effects on colony formation. • Temperature change affected on diluted LB and WSS as media.

Photocatalysis has gained attention as a viable wastewater remediation technique. However, the difficulty of recovering powder-based photocatalyst has often become a major limitation for their on-site practical application. Herein, we report on the successful in-situ preparation of a novel three-dimensional (3D) photocatalyst consisting of Cu2O/TiO2 loaded on a cellulose nanofiber (CNF)/reduced graphene hydrogel (rGH) via facile hydrothermal treatment and freeze-drying. The 3D macrostructure not only provides a template for the anchoring of Cu2O and TiO2 but also provides an efficient electron transport pathway for enhanced photocatalytic activity. The results showed that the Cu2O and TiO2 were uniformly loaded onto the aerogel framework resulting in the composites with large surface area with exposed actives sites. As compared to bare rGH, CNF/rGH, Cu2O/CNF/rGH and TiO2/CNF/rGH, the Cu2O/TiO2/CNF/rGH showed improved photocatalytic activity for methyl orange (MO) degradation. MO degradation pathway is proposed based on GC-MS analysis. The enhanced photoactivity can be attributed to the charge transfer and electron-hole separation from the synergistic effect of Cu2O/TiO2 anchored on CNF/rGH. In terms of their anti-bacterial activity towards Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, the synergistic effect of the Cu2O/TiO2 anchored on the CNF/rGH framework showed excellent activity towards the bacteria.

Herein, we prepared and characterized two antimicrobial cyclic peptides immobilized on reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and accessed their anti-bacterial towards Gram-negative (Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus) bacterias. The covalent interaction between the tyrosine and histidine based cyclic peptides and the rGO occurred via the carboxylic groups of the reduced graphene and the amino side chain groups of the cyclic peptides. A selective antibacterial effect is observed for the cyclic peptides functionalized rGO. The inhibition zone test showed that both the tyrosine and histidine cyclic based peptide immobilized on rGO exhibited higher anti-bacterial potency towards the bacteria in comparison to bare rGO which can be attributed to the synergistic effect of the antimicrobial peptide and rGO.