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Membrane bioreactors are powerful systems for wastewater treatment and the removal of toxic compounds. However, membrane biofouling stands in the way of their widespread usage. In this study, the saprophytic fungus Trichocladium canadense was used as the bioaugmentor in an anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) and its impact on membrane biofouling, biogas production, the microbial communities of the reactor and removal of the common antibiotics erythromycin (ERY), sulfamethoxazole (SMX) and tetracycline (TET) from synthetic wastewater was investigated. The results indicated that through bioaugmentation with 20% T. canadense, membrane biofouling was slowed by 25%, the chemical oxygen demand removal increased by 16% and a higher efficiency removal of ERY and SMX was achieved. The presence of T. canadense significantly increased the abundance and diversity of the biofilm archaeal community and the bacterial phylum Firmicutes, a known bio-foulant.

To address the inadequate removal of antibiotic resistance genes in wastewater treatment plants, this study investigated the impact of bioaugmentation with dried Eichhornia crassipes roots on removal of antibiotics sulfamethoxazole, tetracycline and erythromycin from pharmaceutical wastewater while optimizing potential for reclaiming value through biogas production, utilizing an anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR). Three sets of AnMBRs were set up for the experiment, C1 (inoculum), C2 (inoculum + antibiotics) and EC (inoculum + antibiotics + E. crassipes). The results showed that E. crassipes mitigated some of the toxic effects of antibiotics on the microbial community and prevented negative impact on the archaeal community, and significantly increased average biogas production (by 37% compared to control without antibiotics and 42% compared to control with antibiotics) as well as antibiotics removal. Furthermore, bioaugmented reactor showed significant reduction of erythromycin (97%) and tetracycline (83%) concentrations in effluent. Utilization of E. crassipes root offers a simple yet powerful tool for preventing the emergence of antimicrobial resistance and dissemination of such pollutants into the environment.

The impact of water hyacinth (

The impact of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) root biomass (WHRB) on pharmaceutical wastewater treatment with an aerobic hollow-fiber membrane bioreactor (HF-MBR) was investigated. The performance of the bioreactor was assessed in terms of COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand) and antibiotic removal and membrane biofouling rate. For deeper insight, microbial communities in sludge and biofilm layers were analyzed through Illumina sequencing. The addition of WHRB into the HF-MBR increased the COD (by 6%), as well as antibiotics and transformation products removal efficiency. Removal efficiencies of 97%, 98% and 84% were obtained for removal of erythromycin, sulfamethoxazole, and tetracycline. Furthermore, WHRB modified the biodegradation network, increased the relative abundances of Chloroflexi, Proteobacteria and Nitrospirae and decreased Firmicutes, compared with the control with antibiotics. The addition of WHRB also enriched Actinobacteria and Bacteroidetes while decreasing the phylla Chloroflexi and Saccharibacteria in the biofilm.

Membrane bioreactors are powerful systems for wastewater treatment and the removal of toxic compounds. However, membrane biofouling stands in the way of their widespread usage. In this study, the saprophytic fungus

Treatment of aqueous iopamidol (IOPA, 2 mg/L), an iodinated organic X-ray contrast chemical and micropollutant, with nano-sized zero-valent iron (ZVI) and aluminum (ZVA)-activated hydrogen peroxide (HP) and persulfate (PS) oxidation processes was investigated. Changes in acute toxicity, anaerobic digestion, biogas yield and microbial community were further examined to question the ecotoxicological safety and bioamenability of the proposed treatment systems. For this purpose, two different bioassays were conducted with V. fischeri and P. subcapitata. The cumulative biogas production was monitored in batch anaerobic digestion tests. The microbial community was identified by Illumina MiSeq next generation sequencing (NGS) technology and abundant bacteria and archaea were analysed in the biomass samples taken from anaerobic reactors. The application of activated HP (1.00 mM) and PS (0.50 mM) treatments under acidic conditions (pH 3) resulted in complete IOPA removal. The original IOPA sample caused 5% and 74% inhibitions to V. fischeri and P. subcapitata, respectively. The relative inhibition towards P. subcapitata increased from 74% to 97% and 93% after 5 min HP/ZVI and 120 min PS/ZVA treatments, respectively. No meaningful changes in terms of digestion performance and cumulative biogas production in the presence of untreated and HP/ZVI- or PS/ZVA-treated IOPA samples were evidenced. Moreover, all biomass samples were populated by a bacterial consortium related to different members of Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria, and Actinobacteria. Hydrogenotrophic (Methanospirillum, Methanobacterium) and acetoclastic (Methanosaeta, Methanosarcina) methanogens were the prevalent members of archaea at genus level. An increase in relative abundance was only identified in Methanobacterium under the phylum namely Euryarchaeota.

The effects of bioaugmentation with immobilized Penicillium restrictum on the removal efficiency of sulfamethoxazole (SMX), erythromycin (ERY) and tetracycline (TC) antibiotics as well as membrane biofouling was studied using hollow-fiber membrane bioreactor (HF-MBR). Bioaugmentation with P. restrictum led to a significant change in the antibiotic removal efficiency and relative abundance of aerobic microbial community, most probably as a result of its quorum quenching activity. Furthermore, in addition to its role in the increase of SMX and ERY removal efficiencies and the decrease of their sorption on solid phase, bioaugmentation significantly reduced the transmembrane pressure which in turn reduced membrane clogging. The most abundant phyla in sludge and biofilm samples in the presence of P. restrictum were observed to be Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes. Differences in bacterial compositions and their specificity in biodegradation of antibiotics in different reactors showed that bacteria were specifically selected under the pressure of antibiotics and growing fungus.

Nanoscale zero-valent aluminum (nZVAl)-activated hydrogen peroxide (HP), persulfate (PS) and peroxymonosulfate (PMS) oxidation of Triton™ X-45 (TX-45), an octylphenol polyethoxylate, was investigated. Treatment performances were evaluated in distilled water (DW), raw surface water (SW), tap water (TW) and effluent from a domestic wastewater treatment plant (WW). Two different acute toxicity tests using Vibrio fischeri and Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata as well as the UMU-Chromo genotoxity test were undertaken to evaluate the ecotoxicological effects of TX-45 and its oxidation products. Poor TX-45 removals in the absence of nZVAl (mere HP, PS and PMS treatments) and oxidants (nZVAl/O2/H+ treatment) were obtained (5%-38%). Activation of HP, PS and PMS with nZVAl substantially enhanced TX-45 degradation. Complete TX-45 degradation occurred in DW with the nZVAl/PS and nZVAl/PMS treatment combinations after 90 min and 60 min, respectively, whereas only 76% TX-45 removal was obtained with nZVAl/HP after 120 min (TX–45 = 2 mg/L; nZVAl = 1 g/L; HP-PMS = 0.25 mM; PS = 0.5 mM; pH = 3). In DW, the decreasing order of TX-45 removal efficiencies was obtained as follows; nZVAl/PMS≈nZVAl/PS > nZVAl/HP and as nZVAl/PMS > nZVAl/HP > nZVAl/PS in SW and WW. The nZVAl/PS-treated TX-45 samples did not exhibit toxic effects on V. fischeri; the relative inhibition increased from 15% to 26% in DW and decreased to practically non-toxic levels (< 8%) in SW after 120 min treatment. During the early stages of nZVAl/PS treatment, P. subcapitata toxicity of TX-45 increased from 35% to 44% and from 39% to 52% in DW and SW samples, respectively. After 120 min treatment, it dropped back to 40% and 25% in DW and SW samples, respectively. The original and nZVAl/PS-treated TX-45 neither exhibited cytotoxic nor genotoxic effects.

The generation and accumulation of environmental pollutant of industrial contaminations gave it a big challenge to develop many removal strategies of pollution. Textile dyes as dispersive blue 26 dye affected by several decolorization parameters like as temperature, initial pH and initial concentrations of dye. These variables parameter were studied on ZnO-dye suspension solution in dark and photoreaction conditions. In dark reaction, with using thermodynamic and kinetic parameters such as ΔH°, ΔS°, ΔG° and Ea, the type of adsorption was determined and found as a physical adsorption, exothermic and fast reaction. Moreover, the results demonstrated that the photoreaction process under UV-light-A would elevated the rate of reaction, percentage of decolorization and accelerated the half-time of decolorization reaction in 50 ppm of dye. The photoreaction of decolorization of this dye acts as pseudo first order kinetics with endothermic, less random less, non spontenous and fast reaction.

Advanced oxidation of the aqueous Triton™ X-45 (TX-45), iopamidol (IOPA), ciprofloxacin (CIP) and bisphenol A (BPA) solutions via activation of persulfate (PS) with zero-valent aluminum (ZVA) was investigated. The study aimed at assessing the effectiveness of the PS/ZVA process in terms of target micropollutants (MPs) and toxicity abatements in raw surface water (RSW) and distilled water (DW). TX-45, CIP and BPA were completely degraded after 90-minute, 120-minute and 40-minute treatment, respectively, with PS/ZVA in DW, whereas 95% IOPA removal was achieved after 120-minute (MPs = 2 mg/L; ZVA = 1 g/L; PS = 0.25 mM for CIP and BPA; PS = 0.50 mM for TX-45 and IOPA; pH = 3). TX-45 (59%), IOPA (29%), CIP (73%) and BPA (46%) removal efficiencies decreased after 120-minute PS/ZVA treatment in RSW. In DW, Vibrio fischeri toxicities of original (untreated) MPs were found as: CIP (51%) > BPA (40%) > TX-45 (15%) > IOPA (1%), and as BPA (100%) > CIP (66%) > IOPA (62%) > TX-45 (35%) in RSW. Acute toxicities of MPs and their degradation products fluctuated during PS/ZVA treatment both in DW and RSW samples and resulted in different relative inhibition values after 120-minute. The original and PS/ZVA-treated TX-45, IOPA and BPA in DW exhibited neither cytotoxic nor genotoxic effects, whereas CIP oxidation ended up in degradation products with genotoxic effects.

The aim of this manuscript was to modify the ZnS surface by incorporating with CdS photocatalyst. This manner led to depressing the recombination process and increasing the activity. The X-ray Powder Diffraction (XRD) data were proved that the CdS incorporated with ZnS and formed ZnS-CdS nanocomposite by observing new peaks at 26.92, 28.62, 30.52, and 47.26°. Based on the Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) analysis and Tauc equation, the particle sizes for all samples were raised with decreased the band gap values. The activation energy for decolorization of Congo red with the using ZnS is found to be more than that value for the using prepared ZnS-CdS composite. The percentage of efficiency was found to be increased with modified the ZnS surface.