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- Title
Comparison of microbial communities in pilot-scale bioreactors treating Bayer liquor organic wastes.
- Authors
McSweeney, Naomi J.; Plumb, Jason J.; Tilbury, Amanda L.; Nyeboer, Hugh J.; Sumich, Matt E.; McKinnon, Anthony J.; Franzmann, Peter D.; Sutton, David C.; Kaksonen, Anna H.
- Abstract
Western Australian bauxite deposits are naturally associated with high amounts of humic and fulvic materials that co-digest during Bayer processing. Sodium oxalate remains soluble and can co-precipitate with aluminium hydroxide unless it is removed. Removal of sodium oxalate requires a secondary crystallisation step followed by storage. Bioreactors treating oxalate wastes have been developed as economically and environmentally viable treatment alternatives but the microbial ecology and physiology of these treatment processes are poorly understood. Analysis of samples obtained from two pilot-scale moving bed biofilm reactors (MBBRs) and one aerobic suspended growth bioreactor (ASGB) using polymerase chain reaction- denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis of 16S rRNA genes showed that members of the α-, β- and γ- Proteobacteria subgroups were prominent in all three processes. Despite differing operating conditions, the composition of the microbial communities in the three reactors was conserved. MBBR2 was the only configuration that showed complete degradation of oxalate from the influent and the ASGB had the highest degradation rate of all three configurations. Several strains of the genus Halomonas were isolated from the bioreactors and their morphology and physiology was also determined.
- Subjects
BAUXITE; HUMIC acid; FULVIC acids; ALUMINUM hydroxide; BIOREACTORS; OXALATES; ELECTROPHORESIS
- Publication
Biodegradation, 2011, Vol 22, Issue 2, p397
- ISSN
0923-9820
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s10532-010-9412-6