title: Elemental sulfur recovery and spatial distribution of functional bacteria and expressed genes under different carbon/nitrate/sulfide loadings in up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket reactors.
abstract: To characterize the impact of influent loading on elemental sulfur (S0) recovery during the denitrifying and sulfide oxidation process, three identical, lab-scale UASB reactors (30cm in length) were established in parallel under different influent acetate/nitrate/sulfide loadings, and the reactor performance and functional community structure were investigated. The highest S0recovery was achieved at 77.9% when the acetate/nitrate/sulfide loading was set to 1.9/1.6/0.7kgd-1m-3. Under this condition, the genera Thauera, Sulfurimonas, and Azoarcus were predominant at 0-30, 0-10 and 20-30cm, respectively; meanwhile, the sqr gene was highly expressed at 0-30cm. However, as the influent loading was halved and doubled, S0recovery was decreased to 27.9% and 45.1%, respectively. As the loading was halved, the bacterial distribution became heterogeneous, and certain autotrophic sulfide oxidation genera, such as Thiobacillus, dominated, especially at 20-30cm. As the loading doubled, the bacterial distribution was relatively homogeneous with Thauera and Azoarcus being predominant, and the nirK and sox genes were highly expressed. The study verified the importance of influent loading to regulate S0recovery, which could be achieved as Thauera and Sulfurimonas dominated. An influent loading that was too low or too high gave rise to insufficient oxidation or over-oxidation of the sulfide and low S0recovery performance.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China.
authors.forename: Cong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China.
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China.
authors.forename: Chuan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China.
authors.forename: Fan
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China.
authors.forename: You-Kang
authors.initials: YK
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Environmental Biotechnology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China.
authors.forename: Ling-Fang
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Environmental Biotechnology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China.
authors.forename: Wen-Zong
authors.initials: WZ
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Institute for Environmental Genomics, Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA; Earth Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94270, USA.
authors.forename: Ji-Zhong
authors.initials: JZ
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China. Electronic address: lzlhit@163.com.
authors.forename: Zhi-Ling
authors.initials: ZL
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China; Key Laboratory of Environmental Biotechnology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China. Electronic address: waj0578@hit.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Ai-Jie
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000085:Acetates / Q000378:metabolism; D000693:Anaerobiosis; D020627:Azoarcus / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D019149:Bioreactors; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D009566:Nitrates / Q000378:metabolism; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D055747:SOX Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics; D012722:Sewage / Q000032:analysis* / Q000382:microbiology*; D013440:Sulfides / Q000378:metabolism; D013455:Sulfur / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D020628:Thauera / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D000085:Acetates; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D009566:Nitrates; D055747:SOX Transcription Factors; D012722:Sewage; D013440:Sulfides; D013455:Sulfur
keywords: Bacterial structure; Denitrifying sulfide removal (DSR) process; Elemental sulfur recovery; Influent loading; Up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor