Differential biotransformation of micropollutants in conventional activated sludge and up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket processes

Abstract

Biological wastewater treatment processes exhibit variable extents of micropollutant (MP) biotransformation. We hypothesize that the unique wastewater microbial communities in conventional activated sludge (CAS) and up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) processes will perform different types of MP biotransformations at different rates. To test this hypothesis, we collected influent and effluent samples from a full-scale CAS and a pilot-scale UASB. We measured each sample by means of high-resolution mass spectrometry and frequently detected 39 MPs in both systems. We identify 17 MPs that exhibited better removal in the CAS, 15 MPs that exhibited better removal in the UASB, and 7 MPs that exhibited similar or no removal in both processes. We also conducted batch experiments in bioreactors seeded with wastewater microbial communities harvested from the CAS and UASB into which we spiked a mixture of 24 MPs of interest. Analysis of biotransformation products revealed that those formed exclusively in the batch CAS experiments were the result of oxidations and those formed in both batch CAS and UASB experiments were the result of redox-independent hydrolyses. Androsterone yielded different biotransformation products in the CAS and UASB experiments that align with the disparate redox conditions. Together, our data provide novel insights on the relative functioning of two wastewater microbial communities. Our study demonstrates the potential of the UASB to biotransform MPs and the relative biotransformation potential of CAS and UASB processes. We also present structures of eight biotransformation products, four of which have not been previously reported in the literature.