Effect of carbon source on pollutant removal and microbial community dynamics in treatment of swine wastewater containing antibiotics by aerobic granular sludge

Abstract

Aerobic granular sludge sequencing batch reactor (AGSBR) is a promising approach for wastewater treatment. In the paper, the effects of methanol, starch and sucrose as carbon sources on the treatment of swine wastewater (SW) containing antibiotics by aerobic granular sludge (AGS) were studied. The results revealed that the carbon sources could affect the morphology, biomass, and settleability of AGS, and AGS could maintain a better sludge performance when sucrose was used as carbon source. The pollutants (ammonium nitrogen (NH+ 4-N), organic matter and total phosphorus (TP)) in SW also had a good removal effect, and the removal rates reached 81.14%, 96.83% and 97.37% respectively. The removal efficiencies of tetracycline (TC) and oxytetracycline (OTC) from SW were the best when sucrose as co-metabolic matrix by microorganisms. The analysis of miseq pyrosequencing demonstrated that carbon sources with methanol, starch and sucrose improved the diversity of microbial community in AGS, and the dominant bacteria also changed. The dominant groups involved in TC and OTC, removal at different classification levels suggested that the formation of bacterial communities was determined by carbon sources.