Improving sulfonamide antibiotics removal from swine wastewater by supplying a new pomelo peel derived biochar in an anaerobic membrane bioreactor

Abstract

Sulfonamide antibiotics (SMs), as a class of antibiotics commonly used in swine industries, pose a serious threat to animal and human health. This study aims to evaluate the performance of an anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) with and without supplying a new pomelo peel derived biochar to treat swine wastewater containing SMs. Results shows that 0.5 g/L biochar addition could increase more than 30% of sulfadiazine (SDZ) and sulfamethazine (SMZ)) removal in AnMBR. Approximately 95% of chemical oxygen demand (COD) was removed in the AnMBR at an influent organic loading rate (OLR) of 3.27 kg COD/(m 3 •d) while an average methane yield was 0.2 L/g COD removed with slightly change at a small dose 0.5 g/L biochar addition. SMs inhibited the COD removal and methane production and increased membrane fouling. The addition of biochar could reduce the membrane fouling by reducing the concentration of SMP and EPS.

Electron shuttles enhanced the removal of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes in anaerobic systems: A review

“…Farm wastewater often contains high abundance of antibiotics and ARGs. Wang added biochar made from dewatered swine manure to swine manure wastewater, which significantly shortened the methanogenic inhibition period and reduced the abundance of total ARGs in the effluent by nearly four logs (9.2 × 10 8 –9.1 × 10 4 ) with a reduction of MGEs by 74.8% ( Wang et al, 2022b ); Cheng et al’s (2021) study showed that the addition of 0.5 g/L teak peel biochar to an anaerobic membrane bioreactor increased the removal rate of sulfadiazine and sulfamethoxazole by more than 30% while alleviating membrane contamination caused by sulfonamide antibiotics; Yao et al (2021) used ZVI to enhance the anaerobic treatment of livestock wastewater containing loxarsine and found that the addition of 1 g/L ZVI reduced the methanogenic inhibition of loxarsine by 80.7%.…”

“…In contrast, the pathways of solid electron shuttles for enhanced antibiotic removal are more abundant. Mainly, (1) carbon-based and metal-based materials cast into anaerobic systems, especially in wastewater treatment, serve as good carriers for microbial growth and can significantly improve microbial growth activity ( Zhao Z. S. et al, 2020 ; Yang et al, 2021a ); (2) antibiotics in the aqueous phase are adsorbed onto the surface of the electron shuttle by adsorption ( Zhao Z. S. et al, 2020 ; Cheng et al, 2021 ), due to their excellent electrical conductivity acting as an microbial-antibiotic “electron bridge” to enhance the electron transfer process ( Zhang Z. H. et al, 2018 ; Zhou et al, 2021c ); (3) the pili and cytochrome C of bacteria are important mediators of the microbial extracellular electron transfer process. It has been pointed out that metal oxides (e.g., Fe 3 O 4 , MnO 2 ) help to stimulate the expression of relevant functional genes and promote them with different effects ( Xiao et al, 2022 ).…”

“…In contrast, the pathways of solid electron shuttles for enhanced antibiotic removal are more abundant. Mainly, (1) carbon-based and metal-based materials cast into anaerobic systems, especially in wastewater treatment, serve as good carriers for microbial growth and can significantly improve microbial growth activity (Zhao Z. S. et al, 2020;Yang et al, 2021a); (2) antibiotics in the aqueous phase are 10.3389/fmicb.2022.1004589 adsorbed onto the surface of the electron shuttle by adsorption (Zhao Z. S. et al, 2020;Cheng et al, 2021), due to their excellent electrical conductivity acting as an microbialantibiotic "electron bridge" to enhance the electron transfer process (Zhang Z. H. et al, 2018;Zhou et al, 2021c);…”

Biochar can mitigate co-selection and control antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs) in compost and soil

“…Biochar is used in improving physicochemical and microbiological properties of soil ( Guo et al., 2021 ; Kaur and Sharma, 2021 ) and compost ( Akdeniz, 2019 ; Pandiyan et al., 2021 ; Yin et al., 2021 ). It is also used to remove contaminants (including antibiotics) from aqueous solutions and environmental media ( Chen et al., 2021 ; Cheng et al., 2021 ). Environmental contamination influences antibiotic resistance (AR) and the emergence of AR in bacteria has remained a public health concern.…”

Removal of Acid Red 88 Using Activated Carbon Produced from Pomelo Peels by KOH Activation: Orthogonal Experiment, Isotherm, and Kinetic Studies

“…Previous reports found that pomelo peel is an attractive adsorbent precursor for adsorbing heavy metals [29], antibiotics [30,31], and organic pollutants [32,33]. In the interest of sustainability, this study selected pomelo peels to prepared AC (PPAC) for removing AR88.…”