Sulfate-reducing bioreactors subjected to high sulfate loading rate or acidity: variations in microbial consortia.

ABSTRACT: Sulfate-reducing bioreactors are used in e.g. the mining industry to remove sulfate and harmful metals from process waters. These bioreactors are expected to be run for extended periods of time and may experience variations in the influent quality, such as increasing sulfate loading rate and decrease in pH, while being expected to function optimally. In this study we followed the sulfate removal rate and variation in microbial communities over a period of up to 333 days in three different up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) bioreactors being submitted to increasing sulfate loading rate or decreasing pH. Sodium lactate was used as the sole carbon source and electron donor. All three bioreactors contained highly diverse microbial communities containing archaea, fungi and bacteria. Sulfur

SUBMITTER: Salo M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9288570 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature