Development of a flow-cell bioreactor for immobilized sulfidogenic sludge characterization using electrochemical H2S microsensors

The sulfate-reduction process plays a crucial role in the biological valorization of SOx gases. However, a complete understanding of the sulfidogenic process in bioreactors is limited by the lack of technologies for characterizing the sulfate-reducing activity of immobilized biomass. In this work, w...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Castro Carrasco, Rebeca Ignacia, Gabriel Buguña, Gemma, Gabriel Buguña, David, Gamisans Noguera, Javier|||0000-0003-1856-8692, Guimerà Villalba, Xavier|||0000-0002-4156-2988
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2024
País:España
Institución:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repositorio:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/415557
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2117/415557
https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2024.141959
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Sulfate-reducing bacteria
Biomass immobilization
PVA
Agar
Alginate
Electrochemical microsensor
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria química::Química del medi ambient
Descripción
Sumario:The sulfate-reduction process plays a crucial role in the biological valorization of SOx gases. However, a complete understanding of the sulfidogenic process in bioreactors is limited by the lack of technologies for characterizing the sulfate-reducing activity of immobilized biomass. In this work, we propose a flow-cell bioreactor (FCB) for characterizing sulfate-reducing biomass using H2S microsensors to monitor H2S production in real-time within a biofilm. To replace natural immobilization through extracellular polymeric substance production, sulfidogenic sludge was artificially immobilized using polymers. Physical and sulfate-reducing activity studies were performed to select a polymer-biomass matrix that maintained sulfate-reducing activity of biomass while providing strong microbial retention and mechanical strength. Several operational conditions of the sulfidogenic reactor allowed to obtain a H2S profiles under different inlet sulfate loads and, additionally, 3D mapping was assessed in order to perform a hydraulic characterization. Besides, the effects of artificial immobilization on biodiversity were investigated through the characterization of microbial communities. This study demonstrated the appropriateness of immobilized-biomass for characterization of sulfidogenic biomass in FCB using H2S electrochemical microsensors, and beneficial microbiological communities shifts as well as enrichment of sulfate-reducing bacteria have been confirmed.