Structure and predictive functional profiling of microbial communities in two biotrickling filters treated with continuous/discontinuous waste gases

Rongfang Feng,Xiang Tu,Jun Guo,Meiying Xu,Gang Zhao,Jianjun Li,Shaobin Huang,Guoping Sun

doi:10.1186/s13568-018-0726-9

Abstract

Two biotrickling filters were operated in continuous (BTF1) and discontinuous (BTF2) modes at a constant empty bed residence time of 60 s for 60 days. From day 60, the operation mode of each BTF was oppositely switched. Higher removal efficiencies of five aromatic pollutants were recorded with BTF1 (> 77.2%). The switch in the operation mode did not alter the removal performance of BTF1. Comparatively, BTF2 was not successfully acclimated in the discontinuous operation mode. Once the mode had been switched to continuous mode, the removal efficiencies of BTF2 on all pollutants increased drastically and finally exceeded the values observed in BTF1, with the single exception of p-xylene. Principle coordinate analysis and analysis of similarities (ANOSIM) showed that the structure of the microbial communities differed considerably between both BTFs (R = 1.000, p < 0.01) as well as before and after the switch in BTF2 (R = 0.996, p < 0.01). The random forest model demonstrated that Mycobacterium, Burkholderia, and Comamonas were the three most important bacterial genera contributing to the differences in microbial communities between the two BTFs. Metagenomics inferred by PICUSt (phylogenetic investigation of communities by reconstruction of unobserved states) indicated that BTF2 had high degradation potential for aromatic pollutants, although those genes involved in biofilm formation were less active in BTF2 than those in BTF1.

Highlights

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are generated from many industrial activities such as petroleum refining, coating and furniture manufacturing (Lee et al 2009; Cheng et al 2016)
Effects of operation mode on the removal performance of biotrickling filters During the first experimental stage, BTF1 was fed with the VOC mixture continuously, while BTF2 was fed only 8 h/day and 5 days/week
The results showed that removal efficiency (RE) for all aromatic compounds gradually increased in BTF1 after startup

Summary

Introduction

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are generated from many industrial activities such as petroleum refining, coating and furniture manufacturing (Lee et al 2009; Cheng et al 2016). Effects of various environmental factors such as EBRT, pH, temperature, moisture content, and pressure drop, as well as the microbial communities inside, have been extensively studied (Baquerizo et al 2009; Cabrol et al 2012; Pérez et al 2016; Copelli et al 2017; Ordaz et al 2018) These studies were conducted under steady conditions. There are still large uncertainties concerning the impact of discontinuous mode on the removal performance, function and composition of microbial communities as well as biofilm formation, especially under discontinuous conditions from the beginning of operation. Studies related to these issues are very scarce in the literature

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