Further investigations are required to confirm whether sub-dominant microbial sludge populations are at risk from AgNP exposure, as this may have long term consequences for the successful operation of WWTPs.
The study was conducted in laboratory microcosms assembled with material collected on site: sediments, water from monitoring wells, oil and microbial sludge.
The microbial load of effluents after conventional treatment is very high, as microbial sludge settle through secondary clarifier under gravity, while in case of MBR-based treatment systems, membrane filter is used to separate sludge from the water.
In order to explore the mechanism of As removal by the activated sludge, the As content in microbial sludge was analyzed.
There are a few studies reporting the use of pyrosequencing for the phylogenetic and functional analysis of microbial communities in sludge from wastewater treatment processes.
A considerable fraction of the metagenomic sequence data was not assigned at the genus level, demonstrating the astonishing microbial diversity present in the sludge from wastewater treatment plants.
Perhaps, these free LCFA could be released from anaerobic biodegradation of lipids from microbial biomass, e.g. anaerobic sludge from UASB reactors contains in its composition 5%% dry weight lipids (Alexandre et al. 2011).
In this study, we scrutinized microbial communities of biofilm and activated sludge from 10 full-scale MBR plants.
The laboratory tests proved that microbial degradation of hydrocarbons contained in oily sludge from Otesti oil field area varied from 16.75% to 95.85% in moving conditions (Erlenmeyers of 750 ml on rotary shaker at 200 rpm) and from 16.85% to 51.85% in static conditions (Petri dishes Ø 10 cm or vessels of 500 ml).
Dietz and Zeng (2014) selected microbial consortia from sludge of wastewater treatment plant.
