Microbial community structure and operational performance of a fluidized bed biofilm reactor treating oil sands process-affected water

Microbial community structure and operational performance of a fluidized bed biofilm reactor treating oil sands process-affected water

Type	Journal Article
Author	Md. Shahinoor Islam
Author	Mohamed Gamal El-Din
URL	http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0964830514000882
Volume	91
Pages	111-118
Publication	International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation
Date	July 2014
Abstract	Researchers evaluated the treatment of oil sands process-affected water (OSPW) using a fluidized bed biofilm reactor (FBBR) with granular activated carbon (GAC) as support media. They determined bioreactor treatment efficiencies to be dependent on the organic loading rate (OLR), and to a lower degree, on the hydraulic loading rate (HLR). Further ultra performance liquid chromatography/high resolution mass spectroscopy (UPLC/HRMS) analysis revealed that the removal of classical NAs increased as the carbon number increased. Compared with planktonic bacterial community in OSPW, more diverse microbial structures were found in biofilms colonized on the surface of GAC after 120-day treatment, with various carbon degraders. These include Polaromonas jejuensis, Algoriphagus sp., Chelatococcus sp. and Methylobacterium fujisawaense in the GAC-biofilm reactor. The results of this study indicate the GAC-biofilm to be a promising biological treatment method for OSPW remediation.