Nitrogen source affects non-aeration microalgal-bacterial biofilm growth progression and metabolic function during greywater treatment

Abstract

The non-aeration microalgal-bacteria symbiotic system has attracted great attention due to excellent pollutants removal performance and low greenhouse gas emission. This study investigated how nitrogen (N) sources (ammonia, nitrate and urea) impact biofilm formation, pollutants removal and microbial niches in a microalgal-bacterial biofilm. Results showed that functional genus and enzymes contributed to organics biodegradation and carbon fixation, N transformation and assimilation enabled efficient pollutants removal without CO2 emission. Urea achieved the maximum chemical oxygen demand (89.2%) and linear alkylbenzene sulfonates (95.3%) removal. However, Nitrate significantly influenced microbial community structure and enabled the highest removal of total N (89.7%). Multifarious functional groups enabled the fast adsorption of pollutants, which favored the continuous transformation and fixing of carbon and N. But N source significantly affects the carbon and N dissimilation and fixing pathways. This study offers a promising alternative method that achieving low-carbon-footprint and cost-saving greywater treatment.