Biofilm cultivated in sbr, together with hydroponic chlorophytum comosum for eutrophic water remediation

Abstract

Recently, the eutrophication of water bodies has become increasingly severe in China. Considering the single method of phytoremediation, it still remains the issues including low removal efficiency, high cost, and secondary pollution. However, the combination approach of biofilm and plants to strengthen the remediation for eutrophic water bodies has advantages of cost-effectiveness without causing secondary pollution. Hence, microorganisms from biofilm developed in polymeric fibrous carriers from SBR, together with Chlorophytum comosum (C. comosum), for eutrophic water body recovery, were investigated in this study, to improve water quality, reduce engineering cost and ensure ecological safety. The results indicated that the microorganisms from the bottom sediment of the eutrophic water body were commendably acclimated and formed a mature biofilm in SBR. Each cycle period setting up aeration 10 h and idleness 2 h, the effluent water quality maintained a stable level after the 20th cycle period and the highest removal efficiency of ammonia nitrogen (NH4+ –N), total phosphorus (TP), and chemical oxygen demand (CODCr ) in SBR accounted for 86%, 74%, and 67%, respectively. The biofilm microbes combined with C. comosum were improvement of CODCr removal efficiency at least 8% and increased 10%–19% of permanganate index (PI) removal efficiency and 10%–18% of total nitrogen (TN) removal efficiency, as compared to separate biofilm microbes and single C. comosum. The reduction of TP was at 57% using the biofilm developed in polymeric fibrous carriers combined with C. comosum, which was 8% lower than that of separate C. comosum while 7% higher than that of single biofilm. The bench-scale combination of the biofilm developed in polymeric fibrous carriers and the hydroponic C. comosum could be capable of repairing eutrophic water originated from the Huajin River. This work may further provide implications for remediation of eutrophic Huajin River in situ.