PMID- 21148700
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20110526
LR  - 20211020
IS  - 1098-5336 (Electronic)
IS  - 0099-2240 (Print)
IS  - 0099-2240 (Linking)
VI  - 77
IP  - 3
DP  - 2011 Feb
TI  - Bacterial colonization of pellet softening reactors used during drinking water 
      treatment.
PG  - 1041-8
LID - 10.1128/AEM.02068-10 [doi]
AB  - Pellet softening reactors are used in centralized and decentralized drinking 
      water treatment plants for the removal of calcium (hardness) through chemically 
      induced precipitation of calcite. This is accomplished in fluidized pellet 
      reactors, where a strong base is added to the influent to increase the pH and 
      facilitate the process of precipitation on an added seeding material. Here we 
      describe for the first time the opportunistic bacterial colonization of the 
      calcite pellets in a full-scale pellet softening reactor and the functional 
      contribution of these colonizing bacteria to the overall drinking water treatment 
      process. ATP analysis, advanced microscopy, and community fingerprinting with 
      denaturing gradient gel electrophoretic (DGGE) analysis were used to characterize 
      the biomass on the pellets, while assimilable organic carbon (AOC), dissolved 
      organic carbon, and flow cytometric analysis were used to characterize the impact 
      of the biological processes on drinking water quality. The data revealed pellet 
      colonization at concentrations in excess of 500 ng of ATP/g of pellet and reactor 
      biomass concentrations as high as 220 mg of ATP/m(3) of reactor, comprising a 
      wide variety of different microorganisms. These organisms removed as much as 60% 
      of AOC from the water during treatment, thus contributing toward the biological 
      stabilization of the drinking water. Notably, only a small fraction (about 60,000 
      cells/ml) of the bacteria in the reactors was released into the effluent under 
      normal conditions, while the majority of the bacteria colonizing the pellets were 
      captured in the calcite structures of the pellets and were removed as a reusable 
      product.
FAU - Hammes, Frederik
AU  - Hammes F
AD  - Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, CH-8600 
      Dubendorf, Switzerland. frederik.hammes@eawag.ch
FAU - Boon, Nico
AU  - Boon N
FAU - Vital, Marius
AU  - Vital M
FAU - Ross, Petra
AU  - Ross P
FAU - Magic-Knezev, Aleksandra
AU  - Magic-Knezev A
FAU - Dignum, Marco
AU  - Dignum M
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
DEP - 20101210
PL  - United States
TA  - Appl Environ Microbiol
JT  - Applied and environmental microbiology
JID - 7605801
RN  - 059QF0KO0R (Water)
RN  - 7440-44-0 (Carbon)
RN  - H0G9379FGK (Calcium Carbonate)
SB  - IM
MH  - Bacteria/chemistry/genetics/*growth & development
MH  - Biomass
MH  - Bioreactors/*microbiology
MH  - Biotechnology/methods
MH  - Calcium Carbonate/*chemistry
MH  - Carbon/analysis
MH  - Drinking
MH  - Water/chemistry
MH  - Water Microbiology
MH  - Water Purification/*methods
MH  - Water Softening/*methods
MH  - *Water Supply
PMC - PMC3028692
EDAT- 2010/12/15 06:00
MHDA- 2011/05/27 06:00
PMCR- 2011/08/01
CRDT- 2010/12/15 06:00
PHST- 2010/12/15 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2010/12/15 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2011/05/27 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2011/08/01 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - AEM.02068-10 [pii]
AID - 2068-10 [pii]
AID - 10.1128/AEM.02068-10 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Appl Environ Microbiol. 2011 Feb;77(3):1041-8. doi: 10.1128/AEM.02068-10. Epub 
      2010 Dec 10.