New insights into biodrying mechanism associated with tryptophan and tyrosine degradations during sewage sludge biodrying

Lu Cai*, Thomas Krafft, Tong-Bin Chen, Wen-Zhou Lv, Ding Gao, Han-Yan Zhang

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Sewage sludge biodrying is a treatment that uses bio-heat generated from organic degradation to remove water from sewage sludge. Dewatering is still limited during biodrying, due to the presence of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) in sludge. To study the biodrying mechanism associated with EPS compositions tryptophan and tyrosine degradations, this study investigated the microbial function in sludge biodrying material. This study conducted a taxonomic analysis of biodrying material; determined the most abundant genetic functions; analyzed the functional microorganisms involved in the degradations of tryptophan and tyrosine; and summarized the metabolic pathways. The results indicated efficient degradations of tryptophan and tyrosine were observed during the initial thermophilic phase; functional microorganisms were mainly from the phyla Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, and Proteobacteria, enriched with genes involved in amino acid transport and metabolism. These findings highlight the potentially important microorganisms and typical pathways that may help improve de-waterability during biodegradation.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)132-141
Number of pages10
JournalBioresource Technology
Volume244
Issue numberpart 1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2017

Keywords

  • Biodrying
  • Degradation
  • Microorganism
  • Sewage sludge
  • Water removal
  • EXTRACELLULAR POLYMERIC SUBSTANCES
  • DISSOLVED ORGANIC-MATTER
  • MICROBIAL COMMUNITY STRUCTURE
  • WATER TREATMENT-PLANT
  • BACTERIAL COMMUNITIES
  • ACTIVATED-SLUDGE
  • MOISTURE-CONTENT
  • WASTE
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • EVOLUTION

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