Exploring the impact of intensity and duration of Cu (II) depression on aniline-degrading biosystem: Performance, sludge activity and microbial diversity

To evaluate the ecological risk of aniline wastewater biodegradation, the aniline wastewater (200 mg/L) was treated in this work under the stress of Cu (II) at 3, 6 and 10 mg/L, respectively. The slight fluctuation of aniline -degrading performance and the significant inhibition of nitrogen removal was caused by the Cu (II) stress at below 6 mg/L. Meanwhile, the tolerance of nitrifying performance to Cu (II) was higher than denitrifying. The collapse of biosystem was caused by the Cu (II) stress at 10 mg/L and the decontamination function was disabled within 8 days. The activity and stability of sludge declined under the increase of Cu (II) content. Microbial di-versity results demonstrated that the genera with heavy-metal tolerance represented by Zoogloea and Azospira significantly dominated under the continuously Cu (II) stress. Whereas, the biosystem with these dominant genera did not achieve the comparable aniline and nitrogen removal performance as the control group.

Automated summary

The ecological risk of aniline wastewater biodegradation was evaluated under the stress of different concentrations of Cu(II). Cu(II) stress below 6 mg/L caused slight fluctuations in aniline degradation and significant inhibition of nitrogen removal. Nitrifying performance showed higher tolerance to Cu(II) than denitrifying performance. Cu(II) stress at 10 mg/L led to the collapse of the biosystem and disabled the decontamination function. The dominance of heavy-metal tolerant genera, such as Zoogloea and Azospira, under continuous Cu(II) stress did not result in comparable aniline and nitrogen removal performance as the control group.