Effect of Fe(II) on manganese removal in biofilters: Microbial community, formation of manganese oxide and related mechanisms

In this study, different concentrations of Fe(II) (0, 1.00, 7.00 mg/L) were introduced to investigate the effect on the removal of Mn(II) in the biofilter. Fe(II) significantly inhibited the removal of Mn and prolonged the start-up of biofilters, the start-up periods for the biofilters with different Fe(II) concentrations (0, 1.00 and 7.00 mg/L) were 24, 30 and 46 days, respectively. The study showed that Fe(II) and the Fe(III) oxyhydroxides generated from Fe(II) oxidation inhibited the removal of Mn(II) by affecting the proliferation of manganese-oxidizing bacteria (MnOB) and the activity of manganese oxides (MnOx) in the biofilter. On day 20, the total MnOB genera proportions were 13.44 %, 13.35 % and 20.09 % with different Fe(II) concentrations (0, 1.00, 7.00 mg/L), respectively. The addition of Fe(II) significantly impeded the proliferation of Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter and Arthrobacter, but enhanced the proliferation of Hyphomicrobium and Sphingopyxis. On day 60, the abundance of total MnOB was reduced obviously in three biofilters (6.95 %, 6.44 % and 9.76 %). This indicated that the biological oxidation of Mn dominates during the initial operation stage of the filter layer, while the chemical auto-catalytic oxidation of active MnOx dominates in the later stages. The contribution of Mn removal by biological oxidation was positively correlated with the abundance of MnOB, and batch experiments confirmed this conclusion. Moreover, the addition of Fe(II) reduced MnOx activity by suppressing the production of high-reactivity intermediate-Mn(III), and Fe(III) oxyhydroxides hindered the formation of mature MnOx films on the surface of the filter media.