Collaborative Research: Shedding Light on The Microbial Ecologyand Ecophysiology of Electroactive Anammox Communities

合作研究：揭示电活性厌氧氨氧化群落的微生物生态学和生态生理学

• 批准号: 2327516
• 负责人: Guangbin Li
• 金额: $ 23万
• 依托单位: University of Maryland, College Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-02-01 至 2027-01-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2327516&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Shedding; Light; Microbial

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) play a critical role in environmental protection. In the United States, municipal WWTPs process billions of gallons of wastewater every day to remove suspended solids, organic matter, and excess nitrogen nutrients such as ammonium. In most municipal WWTPs, a biological process, activated sludge (AS), is used to remove nitrogen by coupling an aerobic nitrification process which oxidizes ammonium into nitrate followed by an anaerobic denitrification process that reduces the nitrate to benign dinitrogen gas (N2). However, ammonium nitrification in AS reactors requires the supply of oxygen using aeration which requires a significant amount of energy and accounts for 70-80 % of the total energy used in WWTPs. Anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) has emerged as a promising microbial process for removing nitrogen from municipal wastewater with lower energy consumption and operating costs. However, the selection, cultivation, and integration of anammox bacteria into reactors and the treatment trains of municipal WWTPs has remained a challenge due to their slow growth rates and competition from other microorganisms including ammonium oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB). Recent studies show that anammox microbes can generate electricity. Building upon these promising studies, the Principal Investigators (PIs) of this project propose to explore the selection of electroactive anammox bacteria using bioelectrochemical systems with the goal of accelerating their growth, proliferation, and stability in municipal wastewater. The successful completion of this project will benefit society through the generation of fundamental knowledge in environmental microbiology and biotechnology to advance the development and deployment of more cost-effective solutions for nitrogen removal from municipal and industrial wastewater. Additional benefits to society will be achieved through student education and training including the mentoring of one graduate student at Temple University and one graduate student at the University of Maryland.Anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) bacteria have recently been shown to perform extracellular electron transfer (EET), but little is known about the mechanisms through which anammox bacteria transfer electrons extracellularly to electrodes, and even less is known about how electrons are transported intracellularly from the anammoxosome to the outer membrane proteins for downstream EET. The overarching goal of this project is to advance the fundamental understanding of the microbial ecology and ecophysiology of electroactive anammox communities in bioelectrochemical systems (BES). The core and guiding hypothesis of the proposed research is that in BES, EET-dependent anammox is carried out by a microbial population composed of electroactive anammox bacteria and their electroactive partners. Together they form a mutualistic relationship: anammox bacteria fix carbon dioxide and provide organic matter to electroactive bacteria, whose electron shuttles are scavenged by anammox bacteria for EET. If the hypothesis holds, EET-dependent anammox could be electrochemically enhanced through the enrichment of those two partners. The specific aims of the research are to 1) develop electrochemical strategies to build electroactive anammox communities; 2) understand the microbial interactions in electroactive anammox communities; and 3) elucidate the metabolic pathways involved in EET-dependent anammox. The successful completion of this project has the potential for transformative impact through the generation of new fundamental knowledge on the microbial ecology and ecophysiology of electroactive anammox microbiomes in BES to guide the design and implementation of more sustainable technologies and solutions to remove nitrogen from municipal and industrial wastewater. To implement the education and training goals of the project, the PIs propose to leverage existing programs at Temple University (TU) and the University of Maryland (UMD) to recruit and mentor undergraduate students from underrepresented groups to work on the project. In addition, the PIs plan to integrate the findings from this research into existing environmental engineering graduate/undergraduate courses at TU and UMD.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

废水处理厂（WWTPS）在环境保护中起着至关重要的作用。在美国，市政WWTPS每天处理数十亿加仑的废水，以清除悬浮的固体，有机物和过量的氮营养素，例如铵。在大多数市政WWTP中，一种生物过程，活性污泥（AS）用于通过偶联有氧硝化过程来清除氮，该过程将氧化为硝酸盐氧化为硝酸盐，然后是厌氧脱硝化过程，然后降低硝酸盐以减少硝酸盐以降低硝酸盐以降低偏餐餐餐（N2）。但是，AS AS硝化铵需要使用曝气供应氧气，这需要大量能量，占WWTPS中使用的总能量的70-80％。厌氧铵氧化（Anammox）已成为一种有希望的微生物过程，用于从能源消耗和运营成本较低的市政废水中去除氮。然而，由于其缓慢的生长速率和其他微生物的竞争，包括铵（AOB）（AOB）和亚硝酸盐氧化细菌（NOB），因此，由于其缓慢的生长速度和其他微生物的竞争，其选择，培养和整合到反应堆中以及市政WWTPS的治疗训练仍然存在挑战。最近的研究表明，Anammox微生物可以发电。在这些有前途的研究的基础上，该项目的主要研究人员（PIS）建议使用生物电气化学系统探索电活性厌氧菌细菌的选择，目的是加速其在市政废水中的生长，增殖和稳定性。 该项目的成功完成将通过产生环境微生物学和生物技术的基本知识来使社会受益，从而推进从市政和工业废水中去除氮的开发和部署更具成本效益的解决方案。将通过学生的教育和培训来实现社会的其他好处，包括在坦普尔大学的一名研究生和一名马里兰大学的研究生指导。虫害氧化（ANAMMOX）细菌最近已显示出在细胞外电子转移（EET）的表现，但对通过电子传输的机制却鲜为人知，但对电子杂种的机制知之甚少，又涉及电子杂种的方式，以及如何进行电子杂物，乃至电子杂种，以及如何进行电子杂物，甚至是对电子的传递。细胞内从厌氧剂到下游EET的外膜蛋白。该项目的总体目标是促进对生物电性化学系统中电活性Anammox群落的微生物生态学和生态生物学的基本理解（BES）。拟议研究的核心和指导假设是，在BES中，由Eet依赖性的Anammox是由由电活性Anammox细菌及其电动伴侣组成的微生物种群进行的。它们共同形成了相互关系：Anammox细菌固定二氧化碳，并为电活性细菌提供有机物，其电子班路被Anammox细菌清除为EET。如果该假设成立，则可以通过富集这两个伴侣来实现Eet依赖性的Anammox。研究的具体目的是1）制定建立电活性Anammox社区的电化学策略； 2）了解电活性Anammox社区中的微生物相互作用； 3）阐明与EET依赖性ANAMMOX有关的代谢途径。该项目的成功完成，通过在BES中产生有关电活性Anammox微生物组的微生物生态学和生态生物学的新基本知识的潜力，可以指导更可持续的技术和解决方案的设计和实施，以从市政和工业废水中去除氮气。为了实施该项目的教育和培训目标，PIS提议利用坦普尔大学（TU）和马里兰州大学（UMD）的现有计划，以招募来自代表性不足的团体的招募和导师本科生来从事该项目。此外，PIS计划将这项研究中的发现纳入TU和UMD的现有环境工程研究生/本科课程。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的智力优点和更广泛影响的评估评估来支持的。