Biological support media influence the bacterial biofouling community in reverse osmosis water reclamation demonstration plants

Isabel Ferrera, Jordi Mas, Elisenda Taberna, Joan Sanz, Olga Sánchez

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

© 2015 Taylor & Francis. The diversity of the bacterial community developed in different stages of two reverse osmosis (RO) water reclamation demonstration plants designed in a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in Tarragona (Spain) was characterized by applying 454-pyrosequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. The plants were fed by secondary treated effluent to a conventional pretreatment train prior to the two-pass RO system. Plants differed in the material used in the filtration process, which was sand in one demonstration plant and Scandinavian schists in the second plant. The results showed the presence of a highly diverse and complex community in the biofilms, mainly composed of members of the Betaproteobacteria and Bacteroidetes in all stages, with the presence of some typical wastewater bacteria, suggesting a feed water origin. Community similarities analyses revealed that samples clustered according to filter type, highlighting the critical influence of the biological supporting medium in biofilm community structure.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)173-180
JournalBiofouling
Volume31
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2015

Keywords

  • Biofouling
  • Pretreatment
  • Pyrosequencing
  • Reverse osmosis
  • Water reclamation plant

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