The use of a new mobile phase, with no multivalent cation binding properties, to differentiate extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), by size exclusion chromatography (SEC), from biomass used for wastewater treatment

Abstract

The fingerprints of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) extracted from different types of biomass used for wastewater treatment ( i.e., activated sludge, filamentous activated sludge, anaerobic granular sludge, anaerobic flocculated sludge) were studied by size exclusion chromatography (SEC) with Amersham Biosciences Superdex 200 10/300 GL column with a theoretical resolving range of 10–600 kDa. A new mobile phase, which does not display binding properties for multivalent cations, was previously optimized. This mobile phase contained 75 mM Hepes buffer at pH 7 with 15% acetonitrile (v/v) and was selected to minimize ionic and hydrophobic interactions between the molecules that make up the EPS and the column packing. When EPS extracted from similar sludges is analyzed using different mobile phases, the number of chromatographic peaks obtained is quite similar, and differences are mainly observed in the relative absorbance of the chromatographic peaks. However, very different chromatograms (number and relative absorbance of chromatographic peaks) are obtained for EPS extracted from different types of sludges. Furthermore, when dysfunctions, such as filamentous bulking in the activated sludge, occur in a bioreactor, they also induce strong variations in chromatographic profiles.