Swine wastewater treatment using combined up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket and anaerobic membrane bioreactor: Performance and microbial community diversity

To address the existing economic and environmental issues associated with swine wastewater (SW) treatment, a process combining up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) and anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) was developed and continuously operated for 137 d. Bioreactor conversion and microbial community dynamics in reactors were analyzed. The UASB-AnMBR process yielded excellent pollutants removal efficiencies of 96% and 63% for chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total phosphorous (TP), respectively. More than 60% of Firmicutes (Terrisporobacter, Turicibacter, and Clostridium sensu stricto 1), which were dominated by Methanosaeta and Methanobacterium with relative abundances of 58.6% and 36.8% in the UASB and 22.5% and 40.3% in the AnMBR, respectively, converted complex compounds into organic acids for methanogenesis. This research presented an analysis of pollutants removal and microbial dynamics of UASB-AnMBR, which significantly affected the large-scale application of UASB-AnMBR process.

Automated summary

By combining up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) and anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR), a process for treating swine wastewater was developed and achieved high removal efficiencies of 96% for chemical oxygen demand (COD) and 63% for total phosphorous (TP). The dominant bacterial groups were Methanosaeta and Methanobacterium, which converted complex compounds into organic acids for methanogenesis.