Water quality remediation in a heavily polluted tidal river in Guangzhou, South China

A combined application of different engineering and biological techniques to remediate a heavily polluted river

“…Addition of photosynthetic bacteria (PSB) reagents and Bacillus subtilis powder can enhance the activity of organisms and aid improvements in water quality (Sheng et al, 2012;Khan et al, 2012). PSB and B. subtilis are found in many natural aquatic environments, where they remove pollutants (i.e.…”

“…PSB and B. subtilis are found in many natural aquatic environments, where they remove pollutants (i.e. sulfide, NH 4 + -N) and enhance biological activity and water quality (Chen et al, 2000;Sheng et al, 2012;Nimrat et al, 2012). PSB are microorganisms that use sunlight as their energy source and use naturally occurring organic compounds and sulfur compounds as electron donors for photosynthesis (Chen et al, 2000).…”

“…Another microbial reagent (B. subtilis) applied in this experiment was also isolated from the Dihe River, carried on complex clay. PSB and B. subtilis were used to enhance the purification of the polluted river water and remove C, N, and remediate the heavily polluted sedimentary sludge (Sheng et al, 2012;Lu et al, 2012). PSB microbial reagent (total viable count ∼4 × 10 9 cfu g −1 ) and B. subtilis reagent (total viable count ∼5 × 10 8 cfu g −1 ) were from Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences.…”

“…However, these techniques have many disadvantages, such as being time-consuming, costly and requiring significant space (Zhu et al, 2011;Meyer, 2012;Saeed and Sun, 2012). Techniques using combined biotechnological and engineering methods to remediate heavily polluted rivers have been attracting increasing attention in the environmental protection field (Arini et al, 2012;Sheng et al, 2012). This approach requires less time, space and cost compared to other technologies.…”

“…Sewage is one of the main components of municipal river water in northern China, and Zhang et al (2008) demonstrated that long-term sewage irrigation influences soil microorganisms and soil quality. Accordingly, remediation of river water quality has become a significant concern, both regionally and worldwide (Alvarez-Vázquez et al, 2009;Sheng et al, 2012). In situ bioremediation is a potentially effective process for purification of polluted surface water (Everard and Moggridge, 2012;Zhao et al, 2012).…”