Biogas generation in anaerobic wastewater treatment under tetracycline antibiotic pressure.

Meiqing Lu,Jie Wang,Zhiquan Yang,Xiaojun Niu,Wei Liu,Wenqi Wang,Jun Zhang,Jia Yang

doi:10.1038/srep28336

Abstract

The effect of tetracycline (TC) antibiotic on biogas generation in anaerobic wastewater treatment was studied. A lab-scale Anaerobic Baffled Reactor (ABR) with three compartments was used. The reactor was operated with synthetic wastewater in the absence of TC and in the presence of 250 μg/L TC for 90 days, respectively. The removal rate of TC, volatile fatty acids (VFAs), biogas compositions (hydrogen (H2), methane (CH4), carbon dioxide (CO2)), and total biogas production in each compartment were monitored in the two operational conditions. Results showed that the removal rate of TC was 14.97–67.97% in the reactor. The presence of TC had a large negative effect on CH4 and CO2 generation, but appeared to have a positive effect on H2 production and VFAs accumulation. This response indicated that the methanogenesis process was sensitive to TC presence, but the acidogenesis process was insensitive. This suggested that the presence of TC had less influence on the degradation of organic matter but had a strong influence on biogas generation. Additionally, the decrease of CH4 and CO2 generation and the increase of H2 and VFAs accumulation suggest a promising strategy to help alleviate global warming and improve resource recovery in an environmentally friendly approach.

Highlights

The effect of tetracycline (TC) antibiotic on biogas generation in anaerobic wastewater treatment was studied
A TC removal rate of 67.9–100% was reported by Karthikeyan and Meyer[40] after secondary wastewater treatment in a WWTP
Aydin et al.[39] found that TC removal efficiency ranged from 60–95%, and this rate was lower than 3% when the COD removal efficiency and biogas production significantly decline after dosing with an antibiotic mixture

Summary

Introduction

The effect of tetracycline (TC) antibiotic on biogas generation in anaerobic wastewater treatment was studied. VFAs can enhance electricity generation in microbial fuel cell (MFC)[9,10] The biogas, such as hydrogen(H2), methane(CH4), and carbon dioxide(CO2), are the end-products of substrates in anaerobic wastewater treatment. CO2 is another major biogas produced in anaerobic wastewater treatment It is a well-accepted greenhouse gas and is widely considered to be the main cause of global warming[19,20]. Most studies of TC in wastewater focused on its removal efficiency[27,28,29,30] and its sorption in sewage sludge[31,32], but there has not been a comprehensive evaluation of biogas generation (H2, CH4, and CO2) in anaerobic wastewater treatment under TC pressure

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion