Microbial communities in an industrial activated sludge plant may contribute to the denitrification process, but the information on the microorganisms present in denitrifying reactors is still scarce. Removal of inorganic nitrogen compounds can be accomplished by the addition of carbon sources to the biological process of denitrification. Ethanol is an economically viable alternative as a carbon source in tropical countries like Brazil, with large-scale production from sugarcane. This paper reports the successful aplication of activated sludge with nitrate and ethanol in a batch anaerobic reactor. The operation lasted 61.5 h with total consumption of nitrate in 42.5 h, nitrite generation (2.0 mg/L) and ethanol consumption (830.0 mg/L) in 23.5 h. Denitrifying cell counts by the most probable number at the start of the operation were lower than at the end, confirming the ability of the inoculum from activated sludge for the denitrification process. The samples from cell counts were identified as Acidovorax sp., Acinetobacter sp., Comamonas sp. and uncultured bacteria. Therefore, these species may be involved in nitrate reduction and ethanol consumption in the batch reactor.

A fluidized bed reactor was used to study the degradation of the surfactant linear alkylbenzene sulfonate (LAS). The reactor was inoculated with anaerobic sludge and was fed with a synthetic substrate supplemented with LAS in increasing concentrations (8.2 to 45.8 mg l-1). The removal efficiency of 93% was obtained after 270 days of operation. Subsequently, 16S rRNA gene sequencing and phylogenetic analysis of the sample at the last stage of the reactor operation recovered 105 clones belonging to the domain Bacteria. These clones represented a variety of phyla with significant homology to Bacteroidetes (40%), Proteobacteria (42%), Verrucomicrobia (4%), Acidobacteria (3%), Firmicutes (2%), and Gemmatimonadetes (1%). A small fraction of the clones (8%) was not related to any phylum. Such phyla variety indicated the role of microbial consortia in degrading the surfactant LAS.

The removal of linear alkylbenzene sulfonate (LAS) was evaluated in a UASB reactor using short-chain alcohols (ethanol and methanol) and complex co-substrate (yeast extract). Using only methanol and ethanol as co-substrates resulted in removal of LAS between 30 and 41%. At the end, addition of a complex substrate (yeast extract) increased the removal of LAS to 50%. During the assay, water supply aeration increased the volatile fatty acid of the effluent (70 mg HAc.L-1) and decreased the removal of LAS (from 40 to 30%). According to the fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) results, the amount of Archaea decreased due to water supply aeration (from 64 to 48%). Furthermore, addition of complex co-substrate increased the total anaerobic bacteria and methanogenic archaea content (three and four log units, respectively), which were estimated using the most probable number technique.

The objective of this research was to study phenol degradation in anaerobic fluidized bed reactors (AFBR) packed with polymeric particulate supports (polystyrene - PS, polyethylene terephthalate - PET, and polyvinyl chloride - PVC). The reactors were operated with a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 24 h. The influent phenol concentration in the AFBR varied from 100 to 400 mg L-1, resulting in phenol removal efficiencies of ~100%. The formation of extracellular polymeric substances yielded better results with the PVC particles; however, deformations in these particles proved detrimental to reactor operation. PS was found to be the best support for biomass attachment in an AFBR for phenol removal. The AFBR loaded with PS was operated to analyze the performance and stability for phenol removal at feed concentrations ranging from 50 to 500 mg L-1. The phenol removal efficiency ranged from 90-100%.

Methylamine and sulfate are compounds commonly found in wastewaters. This study aimed to determine the methanogenic potential of anaerobic reactors containing these compounds and to correlate it with their microbial communities. Batch experiments were performed at different methylamine/sulfate ratios of 0.71, 1.26 and 2.18 (with respect to mass concentration). Control and experimental runs were inoculated with fragmented granular sludge. The maximum specific methane formation rates were approximately 2.3 mmol CH4 L-1 g TVS-1 day-1 for all conditions containing methylamine, regardless of sulfate addition. At the end of the experiment, total ammonium-N and methane formation were proportional to the initial concentrations of methylamine. In the presence of methylamine and sulfate, Firmicutes (46%), Deferribacteres (13%) and Proteobacteria (12%) were the predominant phyla of the Bacteria domain, while Spirochaetes (40%), Deferribacteres (17%) and Bacteroidetes (16%) predominated in the presence of methylamine only. There was no competition for methylamine between sulfate-reducing bacteria and methanogenic archaea.

An anaerobic fluidized bed reactor was used to assess the degradation of the surfactant linear alkylbenzene sulfonate (LAS). The reactor was inoculated with sludge from an UASB reactor treating swine wastewater and was fed with a synthetic substrate supplemented with LAS. Sand was used as support material for biomass immobilization. The reactor was kept in a controlled temperature chamber (30±1 ºC) and operated with a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 18 h. The LAS concentration was gradually increased from 8.2±1.3 to 45.8±5.4 mg.L-1. The COD removal was 91%, on average, when the influent COD was 645±49 mg.L-1. The results obtained by chromatographic analysis showed that the reactor removed 93% of the LAS after 270 days of operation.