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Seasonal bacterial community dynamics in a crude oil refinery wastewater treatment plant

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Abstract

The biological treatment of oil refinery effluents in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) relies on specialized bacteria contributing to remove organic load, nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus compounds. Knowledge about bacterial dynamics in WWTPs and how they affect the performance of the wastewater treatment is limited, particularly in tropical countries. The bacterial communities from three compartments of an oil refinery WWTP in Uran, India, were assessed using 16S-metabarcoding, in winter and monsoon seasons, upstream (from the surge pond) and downstream the biotower (clarifier and guard pond), to understand the effects of seasonal variations in WWTP’s efficiency. The organic load and ammonia levels of the treated wastewater increased by 3- and 9-fold in the monsoon time-point. A decreased abundance and diversity of 47 genera (325 OTUs) comprising ammonia and nitrite oxidizing bacteria (AOB, NOB, denitrifiers) was observed in the monsoon season downstream the biotower, whereas 23 OTUs of Sulfurospirillum, Desulfovibrio, and Bacillus, putatively performing dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonia (DNRA), were 3-fold more abundant in the same compartments (DNRA/denitrifiers winter ratio < 0.5 vs. monsoon ratio around 3). The total abundance of reported sulfate- and sulfite-reducing bacteria also increased 250- and 500-fold downstream the biotower, in the monsoon time-point. Bacteria performing DNRA may thus outcompete denitrification in this WWTP, limiting the biodegradation process. The alterations detected in bacterial populations involved in the removal of nitrogen and sulfur species evidenced a reduced quality of the released wastewater and may be good candidates for the following monitoring strategies and optimization of the wastewater treatment.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the management of the Uran WWTP and Dr. JS Sharma (general manager at ONGC) for the coordination of the sample collection, as well as Jörg Becker and João Sobral for the sequencing services provided at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência.

Funding

This work was supported by the ERA-NET project WRANA (Inn-INDIGO/0004/2014), which included the postdoctoral grant of P.S.-C (grant BPD1/wrana/2017), and by the strategic program UID/BIA/04050/2013 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007569) funded by national funds through the FCT I.P. and by the ERDF through the COMPETE2020-Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI).

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Contributions

SV, MK, AK, and PMS designed the study. TCY and AK were involved in WWTP sample collection, chemical analysis, and DNA extraction. PS-C and PMS prepared samples for high-throughput sequencing. PS-C and PMS analyzed the sequencing data. PS-C, SV, MK, AK, and PMS drafted the manuscript. All the authors read, revised, and approved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Pedro M. Santos.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Soares-Castro, P., Yadav, T.C., Viggor, S. et al. Seasonal bacterial community dynamics in a crude oil refinery wastewater treatment plant. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 103, 9131–9141 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-019-10130-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-019-10130-8

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