Iron-enhanced microscale laboratory aerated filters in the treatment of artificial mariculture wastewater: A study on nitrogen removal performance and the impact on microbial community structure

Zhipeng Wu; Tianyu Zhao; Yu Zhang; Yanling Wang; Pengfei Chen; Guining Lu; Shaobin Huang; Guanglei Qiu

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2024.141854

Iron-enhanced microscale laboratory aerated filters in the treatment of artificial mariculture wastewater: A study on nitrogen removal performance and the impact on microbial community structure

Chemosphere. 2024 Mar 29:357:141854. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2024.141854. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Zhipeng Wu¹, Tianyu Zhao², Yu Zhang³, Yanling Wang⁴, Pengfei Chen⁵, Guining Lu⁶, Shaobin Huang⁷, Guanglei Qiu⁸

Affiliations

¹ School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Higher Education Mega Center, Guangzhou, 510006, China. Electronic address: wzpscut2022@163.com.
² School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Higher Education Mega Center, Guangzhou, 510006, China. Electronic address: hjzyzty@163.com.
³ School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Higher Education Mega Center, Guangzhou, 510006, China. Electronic address: 1103820640@qq.com.
⁴ School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Higher Education Mega Center, Guangzhou, 510006, China. Electronic address: esylwang@mail.scut.edu.cn.
⁵ School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Higher Education Mega Center, Guangzhou, 510006, China. Electronic address: 279602565@qq.com.
⁶ School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Higher Education Mega Center, Guangzhou, 510006, China. Electronic address: lutao@scut.edu.cn.
⁷ School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Higher Education Mega Center, Guangzhou, 510006, China. Electronic address: chshuang@scut.edu.cn.
⁸ School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Higher Education Mega Center, Guangzhou, 510006, China. Electronic address: qiugl@scut.edu.cn.

PMID: 38556181
DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2024.141854

Abstract

This study investigates the nitrogen removal efficacy and microbial community dynamics in seawater aquaculture effluent treatment using three different substrate combinations of microscale laboratory aerated filters (MFs) - MF1 (LECA), MF2 (LECA/Fe-C), and MF3 (LECA/Pyrite). The findings indicated that the COD removal exceeded 95% across all MFs, with higher removal efficiencies in MF2 and MF3. In terms of nitrogen removal performance, MF2 exhibited the highest average nitrogen removal of 93.17%, achieving a 12.35% and 3.56% increase compared to MF1 (80.82%) and MF3 (89.61%), respectively. High-throughput sequencing analysis revealed that the Fe-C substrate significantly enhanced the diversity of the microbial community. Notably, in MF2, the salinophilic denitrifying bacterium Halomonas was significantly enriched, accounting for 42.6% of the total microbial community, which was beneficial for nitrogen removal. Moreover, an in-depth analysis of nitrogen metabolic pathways and microbial enzymes indicated that MF2 and MF3 possessed a high abundance of nitrification and denitrification enzymes, related to the high removal rates of NH₄⁺-N and NO₃^--N. Therefore, the combination of LECA with iron-based materials significantly enhances the nitrogen removal efficiency from mariculture wastewater.

Keywords: Ferro-carbon, pyrite, denitrification, microbial community structure.