Problematic effects of antibiotics on anaerobic treatment of swine wastewater

Abstract

Swine wastewaters with high levels of organic pollutants and antibiotics have become serious environmental concerns. Anaerobic technology is a feasible option for swine wastewater treatment due to its advantage in low costs and bioenergy production. However, antibiotics in swine wastewater have problematic effects on micro-organisms, and the stability and performance of anaerobic processes. Thus, this paper critically reviews impacts of antibiotics on pH, COD removal efficiencies, biogas and methane productions as well as the accumulation of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) in the anaerobic processes. Meanwhile, impacts on the structure of bacteria and methanogens in anaerobic processes are also discussed comprehensively. Furthermore, to better understand the effect of antibiotics on anaerobic processes, detailed information about antimicrobial mechanisms of antibiotics and microbial functions in anaerobic processes is also summarized. Future research on deeper knowledge of the effect of antibiotics on anaerobic processes are suggested to reduce their adverse environmental impacts.

Effect of PHRs and PCPs on Microalgal Growth, Metabolism and Microalgae-Based Bioremediation Processes: A Review

“…The use of membranes provides low efficiency of pharmaceutical removal and improving their removal efficiency requires high investments and operational costs [11,12]. Performance of anaerobic wastewater treatment processes was reported to be negatively affected by antibiotics that possess inhibitory effects on microorganisms [14]. Moreover, biological treatment of pharmaceutical-containing wastewaters via an activated sludge process can lead to development of bacterial strains resistant, for example, to antibiotics that could pose a serious threat to humans [15].…”

Effect of Antibiotics on the Microbial Efficiency of Anaerobic Digestion of Wastewater: A Review

“…The process of biomethane production from macromolecular organic carbon involves a variety of microbes, mainly fermenting bacteria and methanogenic archaea. The accumulation of antibiotics dissolved in wastewater into sludge can affect the microbial community associated with each stage of anaerobic digestion (Cheng et al, 2018;Zhi and Zhang, 2019;Luo et al, 2020). Specially, the influencing mechanisms of different antibiotics are various (Walsh, 2000;Kohanski et al, 2007).…”

“…Thermal hydrolysis pretreatment shows removal of fluoroquinones in sewage sludge during anaerobic digestion (Li et al, 2017). Research on the effects of antibiotics on anaerobic digestion has rapidly grown in the last decade (Walsh, 2000;Kohanski et al, 2007), yet comprehensive reviews are still rare (Cheng et al, 2018;Yang et al, 2019). Therefore, this paper takes China as an example to systematically summarize the general usage of antibiotics at present and reviews the main effects of antibiotics on anaerobic digestion with anaerobic biomethane production as the critical point.…”

Removal of Antibiotics During the Anaerobic Digestion of Slaughterhouse Wastewater

“…The spiking of the reactor with the antibiotics did not show considerable effects on the performance of the reactor. However, a wide range of differences have been reported on the performance of anaerobic systems treating this kind of wastewater in a review by Cheng et al [26]. The main reasons stated for the variation was the different antibiotic concentrations and types as well as the combination of different antibiotics used for these studies.…”