TY - JOUR
T1 - Quantification of polyhydroxyalkanoate accumulated in waste activated sludge
AU - Pei, Ruizhe
AU - Vicente-Venegas, Gerard
AU - Van Loosdrecht, Mark C.M.
AU - Kleerebezem, Robbert
AU - Werker, Alan
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Polyhydroxyalkanoate accumulation experiments at pilot scale were performed with fullscale municipal waste activated sludge. Development of biomass PHA content was quantified by thermogravimetric analysis. Over 48 h the biomass reached up to 0.49 ± 0.03 gPHA/gVSS (n=4). Samples were processed in parallel to characterise the distribution of PHA in the biomass. Selective staining methods and image analysis were performed by Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy. The image analysis indicated that nominally 55% of this waste activated sludge was engaged in PHA storage activity. Thus even if the biomass PHA content reached 0.49gPHA/gVSS, the accumulating fraction of the biomass was estimated to have attained about 0.64gPHA/gVSS. The combination of quantitative microscopy and polymer mass assessment enabled to distinguish the effect of level of enrichment in PHA storing bacteria and the average PHA storage capacity of the accumulating bacteria. The distribution of microbial 16S rRNA levels did not follow a measurable trend during PHA accumulation.
AB - Polyhydroxyalkanoate accumulation experiments at pilot scale were performed with fullscale municipal waste activated sludge. Development of biomass PHA content was quantified by thermogravimetric analysis. Over 48 h the biomass reached up to 0.49 ± 0.03 gPHA/gVSS (n=4). Samples were processed in parallel to characterise the distribution of PHA in the biomass. Selective staining methods and image analysis were performed by Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy. The image analysis indicated that nominally 55% of this waste activated sludge was engaged in PHA storage activity. Thus even if the biomass PHA content reached 0.49gPHA/gVSS, the accumulating fraction of the biomass was estimated to have attained about 0.64gPHA/gVSS. The combination of quantitative microscopy and polymer mass assessment enabled to distinguish the effect of level of enrichment in PHA storing bacteria and the average PHA storage capacity of the accumulating bacteria. The distribution of microbial 16S rRNA levels did not follow a measurable trend during PHA accumulation.
KW - Activated sludge
KW - Biopolymer
KW - Image analysis
KW - Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA)
KW - Staining
KW - Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA)
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85133298532&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.watres.2022.118795
DO - 10.1016/j.watres.2022.118795
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85133298532
SN - 0043-1354
VL - 221
JO - Water Research
JF - Water Research
M1 - 118795
ER -