Deciphering the effect of sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate on up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket treatment of synthetic sulfate-containing wastewater

Highlights

• UASB reactor can work efficiently with high COD/SO₄^2- ratios when SDBS exists.

• Outcome of the competition between SRB and MPA was affected by SDBS.

• Presence of SDBS makes methanogens with H₂/CO₂ as a substrate dominant.

• Microbial diversity decreases in the presence of SDBS.

Abstract

In this study, the effects of organic sulfur on anaerobic biological processes were investigated by operating two up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactors with sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate (SDBS) as a representative of organic sulfur. The results indicated that the specific methanogenic activity (SMA) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency of R2 (with SDBS added) were higher than those of R1 (without SDBS) when the COD/SO₄²⁻ ratio was above 5.0. However, when the COD/SO₄²⁻ ratio was lower than 5.0, the sulfate reduction efficiency of R2 was higher than that of R1. These results and the observed SDBS transformation efficiency in anaerobic reactors indicate that low concentrations of SDBS accelerate methane production and the continuous accumulation of SDBS does not weaken the reduction of sulfate. Similarly, the calculated electron flux for a COD/SO₄²⁻ ratio of 1.0 indicates that the utilization intensity of electrons by sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) in R2 was 36.48% higher than that of SRB in R1 and exceeded that of methane-producing archaea (MPA) under identical working conditions. Moreover, the addition of SDBS in R2 made sulfidogenesis the dominant reaction at low COD/SO₄²⁻, and Methanobacterium and Methanobrevibacter with H₂/CO₂ as the substrate and Desulfomicrobium were the dominant MPA and SRB, respectively. However, methanogenesis was still the dominant reaction in R1, and Methanosaeta with acetic acid as the substrate and Desulfovibrio were the dominant MPA and SRB, respectively.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket / Organic sulfur / Sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate / COD/SO₄²⁻ ratio / Microbial community

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2019XKQYMS78) for the support of this study.

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-020-1385-z and is accessible for authorized users.

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