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Backwash intensity and frequency impact the microbial community structure and function in a fixed-bed biofilm reactor

  • Environmental biotechnology
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Abstract

Linkages among bioreactor operation and performance and microbial community structure were investigated for a fixed-bed biofilm system designed to remove perchlorate from drinking water. Perchlorate removal was monitored to evaluate reactor performance during and after the frequency and intensity of the backwash procedure were changed, while the microbial community structure was studied using clone libraries and quantitative PCR targeting the 16S rRNA gene. When backwash frequency was increased from once per month to once per day, perchlorate removal initially deteriorated and then recovered, and the relative abundance of perchlorate-reducing bacteria (PRB) initially increased and then decreased. This apparent discrepancy suggested that bacterial populations other than PRB played an indirect role in perchlorate removal, likely by consuming dissolved oxygen, a competing electron acceptor. When backwash intensity was increased, the reactor gradually lost its ability to remove perchlorate, and concurrently the relative abundance of PRB decreased. The results indicated that changes in reactor operation had a profound impact on reactor performance through altering the microbial community structure. Backwashing is an important yet poorly characterized procedure when operating fixed-bed biofilm reactors. Compared to backwash intensity, changes in backwash frequency exerted less disturbance on the microbial community in the current study. If this finding can be confirmed in future work, backwash frequency may serve as the primary parameter when optimizing backwash procedures.

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Acknowledgements

The project was supported by the National Science Foundation (BES-0123342) and the Department of Defense (ESTCP: ER-0544). The authors would like to thank Young Chul Choi and Jess Brown for helpful discussions.

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  1. Wangki Yuen

    Present address: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 205 N. Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 844 N. 16th St., N117 SEC Link, Lincoln, NE, 68588-6105, USA

    Xu Li

  2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan, 1351 Beal Ave., Room 107 EWRE Bldg, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Wangki Yuen & Lutgarde Raskin

  3. Urban Water Management, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich, Dübendorf, Switzerland

    Eberhard Morgenroth

  4. Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland

    Eberhard Morgenroth

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  1. Xu Li
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  3. Eberhard Morgenroth
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  4. Lutgarde Raskin
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Correspondence to Lutgarde Raskin.

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Li, X., Yuen, W., Morgenroth, E. et al. Backwash intensity and frequency impact the microbial community structure and function in a fixed-bed biofilm reactor. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 96, 815–827 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-011-3838-6

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