Essential factors of an integrated moving bed biofilm reactor-membrane bioreactor: Adhesion characteristics and microbial community of the biofilm.

This work aims at revealing the adhesion characteristics and microbial community of the biofilm in an integrated moving bed biofilm reactor-membrane bioreactor, and further evaluating their variations over time. With multiple methods, the adhesion characteristics and microbial community of the biofilm on the carriers were comprehensively illuminated, which showed their dynamic variation along with the operational time. Results indicated that: (1) the roughness of biofilm on the carriers increased very quickly to a maximum value at the start-up stage, then, decreased to become a flat curve, which indicated a layer of smooth biofilm formed on the surface; (2) the tightly-bound protein and polysaccharide was the most important factor influencing the stability of biofilm; (3) the development of biofilm could be divided into three stages, and Gammaproteobacteria were the most dominant microbial species in class level at the last stage, which occupied the largest ratio (51.48%) among all microbes.