Anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) is a promising technology for resource and energy recovery from wastewater owing to its high-quality effluent and methane production. However, membrane fouling and susceptible methanogenesis have ever compromised the AnMBR. This work attempted to mitigate membrane fouling and promote methane production simultaneously in AnMBR through bioaugmentation with a consortium consisting of both quorum quenching (QQ) bacteria and methanogens. To obtain the dual-functional consortium, N-acyl homoserine lactone (AHL) and gamma-caprolactone (GCL), which could serve as QQ biostimulants as well as carbon sources for fermentation and methanogenesis, were used as sole carbon sources in the anaerobic enrichment, and the obtained consortia were denoted as An-A and An-G respectively. Facultative cultivations with AHL or GCL, denoted as F-A and F-G, were also obtained for comparison. The results indicated that the An-G consortium showed superior AHL degrading activity, and EPS suppressive and methanogenic capacity. The moderate anaerobic QQ activity and low methanogenic capacity of F-G consortium may be attributed to the oxygen exposure in the cultivation. The AHL consortia in either anaerobic or facultative condition, i.e. the AN-A and F-A, showed good QQ activity but compromised methanogenic activity, due to the inhibition of acetoclastic methanogens by free ammonia introduced by the acylamino group in AHL. The optimal consortium, An-G, was immobilized and added to AnMBR. The membrane fouling in An-G AnMBR was significantly retarded to 2 times, and the cumulative methane production was elevated by 18.0 % compared to the control reactor. This work demonstrated that the dual-bioaugmentation with anaerobic GCL enrichment consortium successfully mitigated fouling and promoted methanogenesis simultaneously in AnMBR, which is considered to be highly promising in enhancing AnMBR and facilitating resource and energy recovery from wastewater.

中文翻译：

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双重生物强化策略，可同时减轻 AnMBR 中的生物污染并促进甲烷生成


厌氧膜生物反应器 （AnMBR） 由于其高质量的出水和甲烷生产，是一种很有前途的技术，用于从废水中回收资源和能源。然而，膜污染和易感的甲烷生成曾经损害过 AnMBR。这项工作试图通过生物增强来减轻膜污染并同时促进 AnMBR 中的甲烷产生，该联盟由群体淬灭 （QQ） 细菌和产甲烷菌组成。为获得双功能联盟，以 N-酰基高丝氨酸内酯 （AHL） 和 γ-己内酯 （GCL） 作为厌氧富集的唯一碳源，将所得联盟分别表示为 An-A 和 An-G。还获得了 AHL 或 GCL（表示为 F-A 和 F-G）的兼性培养以进行比较。结果表明，An-G consortium 表现出优异的 AHL 降解活性，以及 EPS 抑制和产甲烷能力。F-G 财团的中等厌氧 QQ 活性和低产甲烷能力可能归因于培养中的氧气暴露。AHL 联盟在厌氧或兼性条件下，即 AN-A 和 F-A，显示出良好的 QQ 活性，但损害了产甲烷活性，这是由于 AHL 中酰氨基引入的游离氨抑制了乙酰碎屑产甲烷菌。最佳财团 An-G 被固定并添加到 AnMBR 中。An-G AnMBR 中的膜污染显著延迟至 2 倍，与对照反应器相比，累积甲烷产量提高了 18.0 %。 这项工作表明，厌氧 GCL 富集联合体的双重生物强化成功地减轻了 AnMBR 中的结垢并同时促进了甲烷生成，这被认为在增强 AnMBR 和促进废水中的资源和能源回收方面非常有前途。