The impact of sunlight on fouling behaviors and microbial communities in membrane bioreactors

Hyeona Park, Syed Salman Ali Shah, Gregory Korshin, Irini Angelidaki, Kwang Ho Choo

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

17 Scopus citations

Abstract

Membrane fouling is a significant obstacle to applying membrane bioreactors (MBRs) for wastewater treatment. Here we report the impact of sunlight irradiation on membrane fouling, biopolymers, signal molecules, and microbial communities in MBRs. The degradation of signal molecules, which induce membrane biofouling, occurred through solar photolysis in batch tests. However, MBR sludge exposed to sunlight exhibited different biological behaviors creating more soluble microbial products (SMP) and signal molecules (particularly autoinducer-2). Cell lysis and deflocculation occurred when the MBR mixed liquor was exposed to sunlight. MBR fouling rates coincided with the temporal concentration profiles of SMP and signal molecules. Sunlight caused drastic changes in the MBR microbial community, stimulating the preferential growth of specific bacteria (e.g., Deinococcus Runella, Flavitalea, Glaiimonas, and Rurimicrobium). The nonmetric multidimensional scaling analysis of the MBR community structures with and without sunlight irradiation showed two distinct microbial community clusters and their reversibility. Network analysis based on Spearman's rank correlations revealed that with sunlight irradiation, fouling rates had significant positive connections with SMP proteins and the Flavitalea genus. The findings of this study demonstrate that sunlight is a considerable factor affecting membrane fouling and microbial ecology in MBRs, needing shade for fouling mitigation and sustainable operation.

Original languageEnglish
Article number121443
JournalJournal of Membrane Science
Volume672
DOIs
StatePublished - 15 Apr 2023

Keywords

  • Membrane bioreactor
  • Membrane fouling
  • Microbial community
  • Signal molecule
  • Sunlight irradiation

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