1 AIT Asian Institute of Technology

Microbial communities of thermophilic wastewater treatment in the sequencing batch and membrane reactors

AuthorRaut, Nani
Call NumberAIT Thesis no.EV-06-18
Subject(s)Membrane reactors
Molecular microbiology
Sewage--Microbiology

NoteA thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science, School of Environment, Resources and Development
PublisherAsian Institute of Technology
AbstractIn an attempt to better understand the process of biofouling in wastewater treatment at a microbiological level, novel techniques namely, Fluorescent In Situ Hybridization (FISH) and Polymerase Chain Reaction-Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE) were used. The underlying bacterial processes in laboratory-scale sequencing hatch reactors (SBR at 27°C, 40"C and 55°C) treating distillery wastewater were studied as a continuation of the previous research effort on the membrane (MBR at 45°C) and sequencing batch (SBR at 30, 40 and 50°C) treatment of landfill leachate (Choudhary, 2005). The FISH analysis revealed that members of /3 proteohacteria were dominant in the reactor at 55°C, members of a-pioteobacicria were dominant under 40°C whereas, proteobactcria followed by Cvtopha;a-Flavobacterran were dominant under 27°C. The PCR-DGGE fingerprint analysis of the community 16S rDNA in the SBR treatment of distillery wastewater (BOD'COD = 0.5-0.6) revealed a 15-60% shift in the bacterial community structure in the reactor at 40°C resulted in highest COD removal efficiency as compared to the reactors tinder 27°C and 55"C. The community structure shifts have coincided with an overall decrease of total EPS production in all reactors with the thermophilic reactor giving highest EPS production. Protein EPS component, in comparison to the carbohydrate /polysaccharide EPS component, always appeared to be the major component of both soluble and bound EPS. The protein/carbohydrate ratio in soluble EPS observed to be the lowest and the bound EPS to be the highest at 55°C as compared to the mesophilic conditions
Year2006
TypeThesis
SchoolSchool of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD)
DepartmentDepartment of Energy and Climate Change (Former title: Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Change (DEECC))
Academic Program/FoSEnvironmental Engineering and Management (EV)
Chairperson(s)Shipin, Oleg;
Examination Committee(s)Visvanathan, C. ;Ranamukhaarachchi, S.;
Scholarship Donor(s)Government of Japan;
DegreeThesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2006


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