Impact of Nano Zero-Valent Iron (NZVI) on Methanogenic Activity, Physiological Traits, and Microbial Community Structure in Anaerobic Digestion

Abstract

Effects of short-term nano zero-valent iron (NZVI) and zero-valent iron (ZVI) exposure on methanogenic activity of anaerobic sludge, physiological traits, composition of phospholipid fatty acids (PLFA), and microbial community structure were investigated. Results show that accumulated methane production decreased with an increase of NZVI concentration; yet, methane production only changed slightly with the same concentration of ZVI. In the NZVI (100-5000 mg·L-1) sets, dissolved iron (DFe) concentrations were 1.6-7.4 times that of the control value at 5 d, whereas DFe was only slightly above the control in the ZVI set (5000 mg·L-1). The concentration of extracellular polymeric substances and cell viability decreased to 21.1% and 79.7%, respectively, of the control in the 5000 mg·L-1 NZVI treatments. Coenzyme F420 and coenzyme M decreased to 40.2% and 61.1%, respectively, of the control in the 5000 mg·L-1 NZVI treatments, which were significantly increased to 1.3 times that of the control value in the 100 mg·L-1 NZVI and 5000 mg·L-1 ZVI treatments. The order of unsaturation and branch PLFA content was ZVI-5000 (21.18%) > control (19.37%) > NZVI-1000 (16.69%) > NZVI-5000 (15.94%) > NZVI-100 (12.08%). High NZVI concentration (5000 mg·L-1) resulted in an increase of DFe and a decrease of cell membrane fluidity and key coenzyme activity of methanogenesis, which led to the inhibition of methane production. Principle component analysis and redundancy analysis indicated that differences in the microbial community existed among these treatments and that Nakamurella, Bacillus, Trichococcus, and Petrimonas showed tolerance to NZVI.