Performance and Microbial Community Analysis of an Electrobiofilm
Reactor for Chelated-NO Removal Enhanced by Ferrous-EDTA
Abstract
The biological reduction of ferrous ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid
(EDTA-FeII-NO and EDTA-FeIII) is an important process in integrated
electrobiofilm reduction method, and this method has been regarded as a
promising alternative for removing NOx from industrial boiler flue gas.
EDTA-FeII-NO and EDTA-FeIII are crucial substrates that should be
biologically reduced at a high rate. However, they would inhibit one
another’s reduction processes when they are present together, which
might limited the further promotion of this integrated method. In this
study, an integrated electrobiofilm reduction system with high reduction
rate of EDTA-FeII- NO and EDTA-FeIII was established. The microbial
communities in electrobiofilms were mainly studied to analyze their
changes during the reduction of these two substrates under different
conditions. It presents a better performance of substrates- resistance
shock loading and high microbial diversities compared with the
conventional chemical absorption-biological reduction system.
High-throughput sequencing analysis showed that the changes in
concentrations of EDTA-FeII-NO and EDTA-FeIII significantly impacted the
genera of the microbial community. Alicycliphilus, Enterobacteriaceae
and Raoultella were found to be the dominant genera (>25%,
respectively) involved in EDTA-FeII-NO reduction. As an EDTA-FeIII
reducing bacteria, Chryseobacterium can endure shock loading of
substrates. Ochrobactrum can reduce nitrate using electrons and
exhibited better stability under shock loading. Furthermore, higher
microbial diversity and stable reactor operation could be achieved when
the concentrations of EDTA-FeII-NO and EDTA-FeIII approached the same
value.