Short-term BDD treatment of wastewater effluent reveals dissolved oxygen turnover and microbial community restructuring
- 1Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuernberg
Abstract
Electrochemical advanced oxidation processes (EAOPs) are increasingly investigated for tertiary wastewater treatment, yet their short-term effects on real wastewater effluent remain poorly constrained. This study investigated real wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent following short-term boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrochemical treatment using an interdigitated double-diamond electrode (iDDE), combined with hydrochemical, stable-isotope and shotgun metagenomic analyses. After 10 min at 7.0 V and 1.02 A, physicochemical parameters and bulk carbon pools remained largely unchanged. In contrast, d18O-DO decreased by 31.3 +/-0.28 permille alongside a small increase in dissolved oxygen (0.16 +/-0.03 mmol/L), indicating substantial oxygen consistent with electrochemical oxygen generation. Shotgun metagenomics revealed pronounced restructuring of the recovered microbial DNA pool, including increases in Comamonadaceae (~12.3% vs. ~25.1%) and Zoogloeaceae (~3.3% vs. ~8.4%), whereas the oxidative-stress-defence gene repertoire showed no coherent response. These taxonomic changes cannot be interpreted as selective survival, as metagenomics do not resolve viability or intra-/extracellular DNA contribution. Overall, short-term iDDE treatment affected the microbial component of real WWTP effluent despite comparatively limited changes in bulk chemistry, highlighting that EAOP effects extend beyond conventional disinfection.
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BibTeX
@misc{visser2026shortterm,
title = {{Short-term BDD treatment of wastewater effluent reveals dissolved oxygen turnover and microbial community restructuring}},
author = {A.-N. Visser and M. Zulla and S. Rosiwal and A. Burkovski},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.24.754035},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.24.754035v1},
note = {CC BY-NC},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Short-term BDD treatment of wastewater effluent reveals dissolved oxygen turnover and microbial community restructuring
AU - A.-N. Visser
AU - M. Zulla
AU - S. Rosiwal
AU - A. Burkovski
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/24
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.24.754035
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.24.754035v1
AB - Electrochemical advanced oxidation processes (EAOPs) are increasingly investigated for tertiary wastewater treatment, yet their short-term effects on real wastewater effluent remain poorly constrained. This study investigated real wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent following short-term boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrochemical treatment using an interdigitated double-diamond electrode (iDDE), combined with hydrochemical, stable-isotope and shotgun metagenomic analyses. After 10 min at 7.0 V and 1.02 A, physicochemical parameters and bulk carbon pools remained largely unchanged. In contrast, d18O-DO decreased by 31.3 +/-0.28 permille alongside a small increase in dissolved oxygen (0.16 +/-0.03 mmol/L), indicating substantial oxygen consistent with electrochemical oxygen generation. Shotgun metagenomics revealed pronounced restructuring of the recovered microbial DNA pool, including increases in Comamonadaceae (~12.3% vs. ~25.1%) and Zoogloeaceae (~3.3% vs. ~8.4%), whereas the oxidative-stress-defence gene repertoire showed no coherent response. These taxonomic changes cannot be interpreted as selective survival, as metagenomics do not resolve viability or intra-/extracellular DNA contribution. Overall, short-term iDDE treatment affected the microbial component of real WWTP effluent despite comparatively limited changes in bulk chemistry, highlighting that EAOP effects extend beyond conventional disinfection.
ER -