Highly efficient and rapid removal of Malathion using non-aerated algae bacteria consortia: Performance, kinetic, and microbial mechanisms

Abstract

The frequent use of pesticides in human activities introduce Malathion into water， which caused serious environmental pollutants. However, the treatment of these wastewaters is expensive and inefficiency. In this study, two photo-sequencing batch reactors (PSBRs) were established to treat Malathion-containing wastewater using algae bacteria consortia (ABC) in aerated (R1) and non-aerated (R2) conditions, respectively. The removal rates of Malathion by ABC in R1 and R2 after stabilization were 83.6 % and 71.9 %, respectively. The microbial community analysis results indicated that Burkholderia was the dominant population in ABC, which was response for the main Malathion degradation. Furthermore, the investigation of degradation pathways of Malathion discovered that the ABC converted Malathion into inorganic phosphorus. The conversion rates of inorganic phosphorus in the two reactors were 16.9 % and 21.6 %. The results demonstrated that non-aerated ABC have a strong potential adaption on Malathion stress and can removal Malathion from wastewater economically and efficiently.