• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.754-759
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• 2011

A sequencing batch reactor (SBR) was operated under different pH conditions to better understand the influence of pH to granulation in enhanced biological phosphorus removal systems. Granules from the SBR were also investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). Considerable decreases in the amount of phosphorus released per substrate provided under anaerobic conditions and the content of biomass polyphosphate under aerobic conditions were observed when pH was changed from 7.5 to 7.0, followed by 6.5. Aerobic granulation was also observed at pH 7.0. A number of bacteria with the typical morphological traits of tetrad-forming organisms (TFOs) were observed at pH 7.0, including large members of cluster. Filamentous bacteria were also there in large numbers. The occurrence and growth of granules were further enhanced at pH 6.5. A SEM analysis showed that the aerobic granules had a compact microbial structure with shaperical shape and morphologically consisted of aggregates of small coccoid bacteria and filamentous bacteria encapsulated by extracellular polymeric substance. The main material ions identified by EDX moreover revealed that the structural materials for polyphosphate in the granules include phosphorus, potassium and calcium. Therefore, these results strongly suggested that PAOs are a dominant population in the microbial community of the aerobic granules.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.8
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• pp.1459-1469
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• 2008

Using a rotating biological contactor modified with a sequencing bath reactor system (SBRBC) designed and operated to remove phosphate and nitrogen [58], the microbial community structure of the biofilm from the SBRBC system was characterized based on the extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) constituents, electron microscopy, and molecular techniques. Protein and carbohydrate were identified as the major EPS constituents at three different biofilm thicknesses, where the amount of EPS and bacterial cell number were highest in the initial thickness of 0-100${\mu}m$. However, the percent of carbohydrate in the total amount of EPS decreased by about 11.23%, whereas the percent of protein increased by about 11.15% as the biofilm grew. Thus, an abundant quantity of EPS and cell mass, as well as a specific quality of EPS were apparently needed to attach to the substratum in the first step of the biofilm growth. A FISH analysis revealed that the dominant phylogenetic group was $\beta$- and $\gamma$-Proteobacteria, where a significant subclass of Proteobacteria for removing phosphate and/or nitrate was found within a biofilm thickness of 0-250${\mu}m$. In addition, 16S rDNA clone libraries revealed that Klebsiella sp. and Citrobacter sp. were most dominant within the initial biofilm thickness of 0-250${\mu}m$, whereas sulfur-oxidizing bacteria, such as Beggiatoa sp. and Thiothrix sp., were detected in a biofilm thickness over 250${\mu}m$. The results of the bacterial community structure analysis using molecular techniques agreed with the results of the morphological structure based on scanning electron microscopy. Therefore, the overall results indicated that coliform bacteria participated in the nitrate and phosphorus removal when using the SBRBC system. Moreover, the structure of the biofilm was also found to be related to the EPS constituents, as well as the nitrogen and phosphate removal efficiency. Consequently, since this is the first identification of the bacterial community and structure of the biofilm from an RBC simultaneously removing nitrogen and phosphate from domestic wastewater, and it is hoped that the present results may provide a foundation for understanding nitrate and phosphate removal by an RBC system.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.285-293
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• 2017

The effects of sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB) on the corrosion and scaling of the Q235 carbon steel has been investigated in the simulated sewage water and oil field gathering pipelines production water, using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive x-ray spectrometry (EDS), and three-dimensional stereoscopic microscope. Results indicated that the concentration of SRB reached the maximum value on the ninth day in simulated sewage water with a large amount of scaling on the surface of specimen. In oil field gathering pipelines, a large amount of scaling and mineralization of mineral salts and thick deposition of extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) layers were also observed on the surface of specimen. The thickness of biofilm was about $245{\mu}m$ within 30 days. After adding microbicides, the thickness of corrosion products film was only up to $48-106{\mu}m$ within 30 days, suggesting that SRB could induce biomineralization. Under-deposit corrosion morphology was uniform in the absence of microbicides while local corrosion was observed in the presence of microbicides.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.197-204
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• 2021

In MBR, extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) is known as an important factor of fouling; soluble EPS (sEPS) affects internal contamination of membrane, and bound EPS (bEPS) affects the formation of the cake layer. The production of EPS changes according to the composition of influent, which affects fouling characteristics. Therefore, in this study, the effects of the F/M ratio on the sEPS concentration, bEPS content, and fouling were evaluated. The effects of F/M ratio on the amount and composition of EPS were confirmed by setting conditions that were very low or higher than the general F/M ratio of MBR, and the fouling occurrence characteristics were evaluated by filtration resistance distribution. As a result, it was found that the sEPS increased significantly with the increase of the F/M ratio. When the substrate was depleted, bEPS content decreased because bEPS was hydrolyzed into BAP and seemed to be used as a substrate. In contrast, when the substrate is sufficient, UAP (utilization-associated products) was rapidly generated in proportion with the consumption of the substrate. UAP has a relatively higher Protein/Carbohydrate ratio (P/C ratio) than BAP, and this means, it has a higher adhesive force to the membrane surface. As a result, UAP seems like causing fouling rather than BAP (biomass-associated products). Therefore, R_f (Resistance of internal contamination) increased rapidly with the increase of UAP, and R_c (Resistance of cake layer) increased with the accumulation of bEPS in proportion, and as a result, the fouling interval was shortened. According to this study, a high F/M ratio leads to an increment in UAP generation and accumulation of bEPS, and by these UAP and bEPS, membrane fouling is promoted.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.689-701
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• 2013

Bacterial growth and corresponding consumption of carbon and phosphorus were examined in which tap water samples containing a very low concentration of free chlorine were supplemented with organic carbon and/or phosphorus. The experiments were performed in a fed-batch mode under a controlled temperature of $20^{\circ}C$. In the phosphorus alone-added water, there was no significant increase in bacterial numbers measured as heterotrophic plate count (HPC) in the bulk water. However, bacterial growth was stimulated by the addition of carbon (e.g., bulk HPC levels increased to $10^3CFU/mL$) and further stimulated by the combined addition of carbon and phosphorus (e.g., bulk HPC to $10^5CFU/mL$). The same effects were observed in biofilm HPC and biomass formed on polyethylene (PE) slide surfaces. In the water where organic carbon and phosphorus were added together, the highest biofilm HPC and biomass (measured as extracellular polymeric substance components) densities were observed which were $7.6{\times}10^5CFU/cm^2$ and $5.3{\mu}g/cm^2$, respectively. In addition to the bacterial growth, additions of organic carbon and/or phosphorus resulted in different bacterial carbon-to-phosphorus (C/P) consumption ratios. Compared to a typical bacterial C/P consumption ratio of 100:1, a higher C/P ratio (590:1) occurred in the carbon alone-added water, while a lower ratio (40:1) in phosphorus alone-added water. Comparative value (80:1) of C/P ratio was also observed in the water where organic carbon and phosphorus were added together. At the given experimental conditions, bacterial growth was deemed to be more sensitive to microbially available organic carbon than phosphorus. The effect of phosphorus addition, which resulted in a lower C/P consumption ratio, seemed to be tightly associated with the presence of microbially available organic carbon. These results suggested that the control of extrinsic carbon influx seemed to be more important to minimize bacterial regrowth in drinking water system, since even low content of phosphorus naturally occurring in drinking water was enough to allow a bacterial growth.