Efficient removal of enrofloxacin in swine wastewater using eukaryotic-bacterial symbiotic membraneless bioelectrochemical system.

A eukaryotic-bacterial symbiotic membraneless bioelectrochemical system (EBES) reactor with eukaryotic-bacteria symbiotic cathode was developed to treat swine wastewater containing enrofloxacin (ENR), which had high performance at ENR tolerance and operational stability. With ENR concentrations shifting from 2 to 50 mg/L, the removal efficiencies of ENR, chemical oxygen demand (COD) and NH4+-N always were higher than 95 %, and the maximum power output (≥343 mW/m3) could be achieved. At 20 mg/L ENR, the removal efficiencies of ENR, COD and NH4+-N respectively reached to 99.4 ± 0.1 %, 98.5 % ± 0.1 %, and 96.3 % ± 0.5 %, corresponding to the open circuit voltage and maximum power density (Pmax) of EBES were 851 mV and 455 mW/m3. The community analyses showed that bacteria (Comamonas, Rhodobacter, Rhodococcus, and Vermiphilaceae et al.), algae (Chlorella) and fungi (Rozellomycota, Trebouxiophyceae, Exophiala, and Aspergillus et al.) at genus level were the dominate populations in the EBES, and their abundance increased with ENR concentration, suggesting they played key roles to remove ENR and another nutrient element. The low relative abundances (1.9 ×10-7 to 1.1 ×10-5 copies/g) of aac (6')-ib-cr, qnrA, qnrD, qnrS, and gyrA in effluent revealed that the present EBES reactor had superior capabilities in controlling antibiotic-resistance genes and antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Our trial experiments provided a novel way for antibiotic livestock wastewater treatment.