Performance, microbial community, and metabolism pathway in adsorption-biological coupling reactor treating sulfonamide antibiotics wastewater: Effect of influent frequency and aeration rate

Coke was used as adsorbent to explore the performance of an adsorption-biological coupling reactor when treating sulfonamide antibiotics (SAs) wastewater under different influent frequencies and aeration rates. Meanwhile, the effects of SAs on the microbial community dynamics and metabolomics of the coupling reactor were also investigated. Results showed that the treatment efficiency on SAs wastewater was the best when the influent frequency was once every two days (0.80 L each time) and the aeration rate was 10.00 mL/min. The average removal rate of COD, TP and NH3-N was 95.68 %, 66.09 %, 97.84 %, respectively. Meanwhile, the average removal rates of sulfadiazine (SD) and sulfamethoxazole (SMX) were 88.29 % and 96.76 %. Plasticicumulans, Nakamurella, and Pseudomonas were the main functional bacteria. The nitrate reductase gene (narGH) and phosphate-specific transport system subunit (pstSC) were the genes with the highest average abundance of nitrogen and phosphorus metabolism. Further, 4-hydroxy-2-hydroxylaminopyrimidine, N-phenylacetamide, 4-aminophenol, and hydroquinone were detected as SD and SMX intermediate metabolites. Therefore, the use of adsorption-biological coupling technology to wastewater containing SAs has a certain application prospects.