Issue 3, 2022

Improved anaerobic degradation of purified terephthalic acid wastewater by adding nanoparticles or co-substrates to facilitate the electron transfer process

Abstract

Improving the biodegradation efficiency of terephthalic acid (TA) wastewater processes is highly challenging, particularly in large-scale up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactors. Importantly, this study proposes to add functional components into UASB reactors to facilitate the electron transfer process to enhance the TA degradation efficiency. The results showed that the complete degradation period of terephthalic acid (TA, 1000 mg L−1) wastewater has been dramatically shortened via adding TiO2/Fe3O4 nanoparticles (NPs, up to 81 days) or ethanol (up to 50 days), in which the significantly improved performance in nanoparticle-added reactors was due to the high accumulation of NPs (Fe3O4/TiO2) functioning as additional ‘bridge-like routes’ for ultrafast electron transfer between the microorganisms, therefore facilitating a ‘pseudo electro-fermentation’ process to strengthen the direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET) process. The addition of ethanol into reactors showed significantly improved performance, but requiring daily addition, while the nanoparticulate materials were only required when the reactor was initially activated. Additionally, comprehensive experiments/perspectives on degrading low-to-high concentration wastewater were also explored in this study, which implied that Fe3O4 NPs enabled efficient degradation of high-concentration isophthalic acid (IPA, 18 000 mg L−1) wastewater owing to their high degradation efficiency. Meanwhile TiO2 NPs were more efficient in dealing with low-concentration TA wastewater due to their cheaper price and high stability in reactors. This study provides essential information for future component-complex, industry-scale wastewater treatment and remediation.

Graphical abstract: Improved anaerobic degradation of purified terephthalic acid wastewater by adding nanoparticles or co-substrates to facilitate the electron transfer process

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
12 Nov 2021
Accepted
23 Jän 2022
First published
24 Jän 2022

Environ. Sci.: Nano, 2022,9, 1011-1024

Improved anaerobic degradation of purified terephthalic acid wastewater by adding nanoparticles or co-substrates to facilitate the electron transfer process

H. Li, W. Zhang, D. Xia, L. Ye, W. Ma, H. Li, Q. Li and Y. Wang, Environ. Sci.: Nano, 2022, 9, 1011 DOI: 10.1039/D1EN01037A

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