UV and bacteriophages as a chemical-free approach for cleaning membranes from anaerobic bioreactors
Type
ArticleAuthors
Scarascia, Giantommaso
Fortunato, Luca

Myshkevych, Yevhen

Cheng, Hong

Leiknes, TorOve

Hong, Pei-Ying

KAUST Department
Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering (BESE) DivisionEnvironmental Microbial Safety and Biotechnology Lab
Environmental Science and Engineering
Environmental Science and Engineering Program
Water Desalination and Reuse Research Center (WDRC)
KAUST Grant Number
FCC/1/1971-32-01REI/1/4178-03-01
Date
2021-09-07Online Publication Date
2021-09-07Print Publication Date
2021-09-14Embargo End Date
2022-03-07Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/667612
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Show full item recordAbstract
Anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) for wastewater treatment has attracted much interest due to its efficacy in providing high-quality effluent with minimal energy costs. However, membrane biofouling represents the main bottleneck for AnMBR because it diminishes flux and necessitates frequent replacement of membranes. In this study, we assessed the feasibility of combining bacteriophages and UV-C irradiation to provide a chemical-free approach to remove biofoulants on the membrane. The combination of bacteriophage and UV-C resulted in better log cells removal and ca. 2× higher extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) concentration reduction in mature biofoulants compared to either UV-C or bacteriophage alone. The cleaning mechanism behind this combined approach is by 1) reducing the relative abundance of Acinetobacter spp. and selected bacteria (e.g., Paludibacter, Pseudomonas, Cloacibacterium, and gram-positive Firmicutes) associated with the membrane biofilm and 2) forming cavities in the biofilm to maintain water flux through the membrane. When the combined treatment was further compared with the common chemical cleaning procedure, a similar reduction on the cell numbers was observed (1.4 log). However, the combined treatment was less effective in removing EPS compared with chemical cleaning. These results suggest that the combination of UV-C and bacteriophage have an additive effect in biofouling reduction, representing a potential chemical-free method to remove reversible biofoulants on membrane fitted to an AnMBR.Citation
Scarascia, G., Fortunato, L., Myshkevych, Y., Cheng, H., Leiknes, T., & Hong, P.-Y. (2020). UV and bacteriophages as a chemical-free approach for cleaning membranes from anaerobic bioreactors. doi:10.1101/2020.08.03.234450Sponsors
S. This study was supported by KAUST Center Applied Research Funding FCC/1/1971-32-01 and Center of Excellence for NEOM Research Flagship Projects REI/1/4178-03-01 awarded to P.-Y.H.Additional Links
http://www.pnas.org/lookup/doi/10.1073/pnas.2016529118Relations
Is Supplemented By:- [Bioproject]
Title: UV and bacteriophages treatment: chemicals-free approach to reduce fouling in anaerobic membrane bioreactors. Publication Date: 2021-02-17. bioproject: PRJEB38595 Handle: 10754/671181
ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1073/pnas.2016529118
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Archived with thanks to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences