The bacterial community structure of submerged membrane bioreactor treating synthetic hospital wastewater

Abstract

The pharmaceuticals are biologically active compounds used to prevent and treat diseases. These pharmaceutical compounds were not fully metabolized by the human body and thus excreted out in the wastewater stream. Thus, the study on the treatment of synthetic hospital wastewater containing pharmaceuticals (ibuprofen, carbamazepine, estradiol and venlafaxine) was conducted to understand the variation of the bacterial community in a submerged membrane bioreactor (SMBR) at varying hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 6, 12 and 18 h. The variation in bacterial community dynamics of SMBR was studied using high throughput sequencing. The removal of pharmaceuticals was uniform at varying HRT. The removal of both ibuprofen and estradiol was accounted for 90%, whereas a lower removal of venlafaxine (<10%) and carbamazepine (>5%) in SMBR was observed. The addition of pharmaceuticals alters the bacterial community structure and result in increased abundance of bacteria (e.g., Flavobacterium, Pedobacter, and Methylibium) reported to degrade toxic pollutant.

Keywords: Bacterial community; HRT; High throughput sequencing; Pharmaceuticals; SMBR.