Abstract
Efficiency and feasibility of two backwashing methods (water-nitrogen and water-air assisted) on arsenic and its co-pollutants removal were assessed through running a sulfidogenic attached growth reactor (AGR) treating arsenic spiked simulated groundwater for about 600 days. Replacing water with nitrogen assisted backwashing (WNAB) by water with air assisted backwashing (WAAB) introduced dissolved oxygen (DO) as an additional electron acceptor, which required an increased empty bed contact time (EBCT) to retain the entire terminal electron accepting zones (DO, nitrate, arsenate and sulfate) within the reactor. Removal of arsenic to below 10 μg/L required a longer EBCT at higher influent DO in backwash water. Notably, MiSeq sequencing analysis confirmed the presence of diverse bacterial community on biofilm which can utilize multiple terminal electron acceptors present in the bioreactor.
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