Microbial community and metabolic characteristics evaluation in start-up stage of electro-enhanced SBR for aniline wastewater treatment

An electro-enhanced sequencing batch reactor (E-SBR) was constructed to treat 400 mg/L aniline wastewater and realized system rapid start-up. The aniline degradation efficiency was almost 100% and the total nitrogen removal rate was 80% in the E-SBR. High-throughput sequencing showed that the microbial community in E-SBR changed greatly. At genus level, Anaerolineae, Rhodococcus, Luteococcus, Deniratisoma, and SM1A02 enriched in activated sludge. Thauera, Ellin6067, Arenimonas, Hydrogenophaga enriched in the electrode biofilm. These functional microorganisms accounted for a large proportion and played an important role in the removal of pollutants. Meanwhile, the microorganism metabolism in the E-SBR system was significantly different from that in the traditional SBR system, the E-SBR system had higher nitrogen metabolic and carbohydrate metabolism abundance to ensure the effective removal of aniline and nitrogen.

Automated summary

An electro-enhanced sequencing batch reactor (E-SBR) was used to treat aniline wastewater efficiently and achieved high nitrogen removal rate. The microbial community in E-SBR changed significantly, with the enrichment of functional microorganisms that played a crucial role in pollutant removal. The metabolism of microorganisms in E-SBR system was different from that in traditional SBR system.