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Insights into the microbial response of anaerobic granular sludge during long-term exposure to polyethylene terephthalate microplastics

Water Research 2020 182 citations ? Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count. Score: 55 ? 0–100 AI score estimating relevance to the microplastics field. Papers below 30 are filtered from public browse.

Wei Wei, Bing‐Jie Ni Wei Wei, Wei Wei, Wei Wei, Wei Wei, Wei Wei, Wei Wei, Wei Wei, Wei Wei, Wei Wei, Wei Wei, Wei Wei, Bing‐Jie Ni Yuting Zhang, Yuting Zhang, Yuting Zhang, Yuting Zhang, Chen Wang, Chen Wang, Chen Wang, Chen Wang, Qi-Su Huang, Bing‐Jie Ni Yuting Zhang, Yuting Zhang, Bing‐Jie Ni Wei Wei, Wei Wei, Qi-Su Huang, Wei Wei, Qi-Su Huang, Wei Wei, Wei Wei, Qi-Su Huang, Wei Wei, Wei Wei, Wei Wei, Wei Wei, Wei Wei, Wei Wei, Wei Wei, Qi-Su Huang, Qi-Su Huang, Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Yun Wang, Yun Wang, Yuting Zhang, Qi-Su Huang, Yuting Zhang, Chen Wang, Qi-Su Huang, Qi-Su Huang, Wei Wei, Qi-Su Huang, Wei Wei, Wei Wei, Wei Wei, Wei Wei, Wei Wei, Wei Wei, Chen Wang, Wei Wei, Yun Wang, Yun Wang, Yuting Zhang, Wei Wei, Chen Wang, Wei Wei, Wei Wei, Wei Wei, Wei Wei, Wei Wei, Wei Wei, Wei Wei, Yuting Zhang, Yuting Zhang, Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Wei Wei, Bing‐Jie Ni Wei Wei, Bing‐Jie Ni Wei Wei, Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Wei Wei, Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Yun Wang, Bing‐Jie Ni Wei Wei, Wei Wei, Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Wei Wei, Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Wei Wei, Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Yuting Zhang, Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Wei Wei, Bing‐Jie Ni

Summary

Researchers investigated how polyethylene terephthalate microplastics affect anaerobic granular sludge used in wastewater treatment over 84 days. The study found that at relatively low concentrations, PET microplastics had minimal impact, but at higher concentrations they disrupted the microbial community structure and reduced the efficiency of the anaerobic treatment process.

Polymers

PE PET

Study Type Environmental

The negative effects of ubiquitous microplastics on wastewater treatment have attracted increasing attention. However, the potential impacts of microplastics on anaerobic granular sludge (AGS) remain unknown. To fill this knowledge gap, this paper investigated the response of AGS to the exposure of model microplastics (polyethylene terephthalate (PET-MPs)) and provided insights into the mechanisms involved. The 84 days' long-term exposure experiments demonstrated that PET-MPs, at relatively low level (15 MP L) did not affect AGS performance during anaerobic wastewater treatment, while 75-300 MP L of PET-MPs caused the decreases of COD removal efficiency and methane yields by 17.4-30.4% and 17.2-28.4%, accompanied with the 119.4-227.8% increase in short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) accumulation and particle breakage. Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) analysis showed that dosage-dependent tolerance of AGS to PET-MPs was attributed to the induced EPS producing protection role, but PET-MPs at higher concentrations (75-300 MP L) suppressed EPS generation. Correspondingly, microbial community analysis revealed that the populations of key acidogens (e.g., Levilinea sp.) and methanogens (e.g., Methanosaeta sp.) decreased after long-term exposure to PET-MPs. Assessment of the toxicity of PET-MPs revealed that the leached di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP) and the induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) by PET-MPs were causing toxicity towards AGS, confirmed by the increases in cell mortality and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release. These results provide novel insights into the ecological risk assessment of microplastics in anaerobic wastewater treatment system.

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