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Effect of long-term exposure to non-biodegradable and biodegradable microplastics in continuous anoxic/aerobic bioreactors: Nitrogen removal performance, microbial communities and functional gene responses
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Researchers compared the effects of biodegradable and non-biodegradable microplastics on nitrogen removal in wastewater treatment bioreactors over an extended period. They found that biodegradable polylactic acid particles were actually more harmful than conventional PET microplastics, significantly reducing the efficiency of ammonia removal by damaging beneficial bacteria. The study challenges the assumption that biodegradable plastics are always safer for wastewater treatment systems.
The environmental hazards caused by microplastics (MPs) have received widespread attention, but the effects of non-biodegradable and biodegradable MPs of long-term presence on continuously operating sewage treatment bioreactors are not well known. In this study, we investigated the effect of a representative non-biodegradable MP, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and a biodegradable MP, polylactic acid (PLA), on the nitrogen removal performance of conventional anoxic/aerobic (A/O) process. The NH-N removal efficiencies were suppressed to 91.7 ± 5.5% and 80.8 ± 4.1% at concentrations of 10 and 100 mg/L PLA, significantly (p < 0.05) lower than 96.3 ± 1.0% and 95.0 ± 1.5% with the presence of PET. PLA resulted in a significant (p < 0.05) decrease in adenosine triphosphate of living cells (cATP) and dehydrogenase activities. PLA enhanced redox stress and induced a series of oxidative stress reactions that were detrimental to the normal growth and metabolism of microorganisms. The relative abundance of several functional microorganisms (Nitrosomonas,Nitrospira and Ellin6067) and genes (amoA, amoB and amoC) associated with NH-N conversion were reduced. The potential risk of biodegradable MPs to the long-term wastewater treatment process cannot be ignored and needs to be emphasized.
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