Shaoqing Zhang

Shaoguan University | SGU · School of Chemistry and Civil Engineering

This study aimed at investigating the potential impacts of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) exposure on the partial denitrification (PD) system. Our results indicated that nitrite accumulation rates were significantly decreased to 67.94 ± 1.25%–69.52 ± 3.13% after long-term PFOA exposure (0.5–20 mg/L), while the nitrate transformation ratio was slight...

To apply coal fly ash to the remediation of heavy-metal-contaminated soil, an alumina–silica nano-amendment (ASNA) was synthesized from coal fly ash and was used for the immobilization of lead and zinc in contaminated soil. The investigation on the synthesis of the ASNA shows that the ASNA can be obtained under a roasting temperature of 700 °C, a r...

Biological fouling as termed biofouling is caused by varied living organisms and is difficult to eliminate from the environment thus becoming a major issue during membrane bioreactors. Biofouling in membrane bioreactors (MBRs) is a crucial problem in increasing liquid pressure due to reduced pore diameter, clogging of the membrane pores, and altera...

This study was aimed at assessing the effects of elevated Cr(VI) stresses on partial denitrification (PD) process. The results showed that 0.5-5 mg/L Cr(VI) exposure significantly decreased nitrite accumulation rate, while COD removal efficiencies increased due to the further conversion of NO2⁻-N to N2. This suggested that Cr(VI) exposure shifted t...

Understanding the structures and dynamics of bacterial communities in activated sludge (AS) in full-scale wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is of both engineering and ecological significance. Previous investigations have mainly focused on the AS communities of WWTP aeration tanks, and the differences and interactions between the communities in an...

This study investigated the effects of filtration modes, i.e., constant transmembrane pressure (TMP) and constant flux mode, on nutrient removal, fouling characteristic and microbial community in a membrane bioreactor. The results showed that filtration mode had minor effects on membrane rejection of COD and nutrients. Membrane fouling rate was hig...

Microbial immigrants arriving with influent wastewater may influence activated sludge (AS) ecosystems. However, the extent to which immigration impacts AS communities is still debated. To explore the intensity of immigration impact, we used sequencing technology to track the raw wastewater and AS communities from a membrane bioreactor plant over a...

This study aims to unravel the microbial responses to Cr(VI) stress in anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) reactor. The result showed that anammox process could tolerate 2 mg/L Cr(VI) after acclimation, while 5 mg/L Cr(VI) stress resulted in significant inhibition on anammox bacterial activity. Ca. Jettenia was the predominant anammox genus, who...

The aim of present study was to re-evaluate the impacts of elevated Fe(III) stress on anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) process. The results indicated that long-term low concentration Fe(III) (5 and 10 mg/L) exposure significantly improved the nitrogen removal efficiency of anammox process, while high concentration Fe(III) (50 and 100 mg/L) si...

Fungi are important contributors to the various functions of activated sludge in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Unlike previous studies, this work demonstrated the seasonality of the fungal community over a longer time span while it also systematically assessed the contributions of abundant, conditionally rare, and rare taxa to the whole comm...

The size of bacterial aggregates can determine both nutrient removal and sludge/water separation in activated sludge processes. In this study, the bacterial community structures and network associations of different sized aggregates obtained from a full-scale membrane bioreactor plant over a one-year period were investigated. Our results showed tha...

The responses of microbial community structures and bacterial interactions of anammox process to hydrodynamic wash was investigated. Based on the operation of three identical anammox reactors with the same nitrogen loading rate, we found that though the three reactors achieved comparable nitrogen removal performance during the whole operation perio...

Wanted and unwanted surface-attached growth of bacteria is ubiquitous in natural and engineered settings. Normally, attachment of planktonic cells to media surfaces initiates biofilm formation and fundamentally regulates biofilm assembly processes. Here, culturing biofilm with planktonic sludge as source community, we found distinct succession prof...

The size nature of sludge flocs could affect the occurrence and distribution of bacterial pathogens in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). In this study, the floc-size dependence of bacterial pathogens in the activated sludge of a WWTP was investigated using high-throughput metagenomic sequencing approaches. The results showed that a total of 423...

Sub-visible particles, an often-overlooked fine particle (0.45–10 μm)with a size between sludge solids and soluble microbial products (SMP), have recently been identified as a critical foulant in anaerobic membrane bioreactors (AnMBRs), and our recent new insights into the size-fractionation and composition of sub-visible particles in AnMBRs have e...

Much about assembly processes dictating bio-cake microbiota remains uncertain, leading to poor understanding of membrane biofouling in membrane bioreactors (MBRs). This work aimed to reveal the underlying mechanisms driving bio-cake community during the biofouling process under different flux conditions. On the basis of 16S rRNA sequences, the resu...

Temperature is a well-known environmental stress that influences both microbial metabolism and community structure in the biological wastewater treatment systems. In this study, responses of biological performance and sludge microbiota to the long-term day/night temperature differences (DNTD) were investigated in membrane bioreactors (MBRs). The re...

Nitritation-related processes are often applied for the treatment of wastewater that contains high concentrations of both ammonium and antibiotics. Nonetheless, the interactions between antibiotics removal and nitritation performance are not well-known so far. Herein, two parallel lab-scale nitritation membrane bioreactors (MBRs) were operated with...

Currently, membrane biofouling in membrane bioreactors (MBRs) is normally attributed to the occurrence of abundant bacterial species on membranes, whereas the roles of low-abundance bacteria have not been paid sufficient attention. In this study, the linear discriminant analysis (LDA) effect size (LEfSe) algorithm was used to identify active biomar...

A clear understanding of membrane ageing process is essential for the optimization of chemical cleaning in membrane-based facilities. In this study, two-dimensional (2D) Fourier transformation infrared (FTIR) correlation spectroscopy (COS) analysis was firstly used to decipher the sequential order of functional group changes of NaOCl-aged polyether...

The goal of the current article is to update new findings in membrane fouling and emerging fouling mitigation strategies reported in recent years (post 2010) as a follow-up to our previous review published in Water Research (2009). According to a systematic review of the literature, membrane bioreactors (MBRs) are still actively investigated in the...

On the basis of achieving shortcut nitrification in a lab-scale SBR, the effects of constant pH and unsteady pH at different free ammonia concentrations on shortcut nitrification for landfill leachate treatment was investigated. The results indicate that under the condition of DO of 0.5 ± 0.2 mg/L and temperature of 30 ± 2 °C, the absolute value of...