The Role of Bioactivity in Biofiltration Processes

用于饮用水处理的生物过滤正在经历一种范式的转变，使其从被动过程转变为工程过程。工程生物过滤是一种新兴的技术，其重点是有目的地运行生物滤池，以获得有利于生物活性和随后的污染物生物降解的条件。生物过滤可以将一些污染物去除的负担从化学驱动的过程转移到生物降解过程，从而节省化学和成本，从而提高整个饮用水处理过程的可持续性。尽管依赖生物膜来提供污染物的生物降解，但饮用水生物滤池中存在的微生物群落的功能潜力在很大程度上仍然未知。因此，这项研究计划的首要目标是对饮用水生物滤池中微生物群落的功能潜力提供新的见解。这项研究计划的具体主题包括确定有可能迅速表明生物滤池微生物组的整体生物活性和生存能力的新参数，探索与生物活性结果相关的潜在微生物群落结构，以及开发支持活性和功能性核心微生物组的治疗技术。这项研究计划将在五年内培训约8名高素质人才。整个研究计划将努力推进生物过滤知识，以支持可持续的水处理。预计这项研究计划的结果将有助于了解生物滤池中存在的代谢和系统发育状况，从而支持饮用水处理创新。

Biofiltration for drinking water treatment is undergoing a paradigm shift that is taking it from a passive process to an engineered process. Engineered biofiltration is an emerging technology focused on the purposeful operation of biofilters to achieve conditions that are beneficial to bioactivity and the subsequent biodegradation of contaminants. Biofiltration can shift some of the burden of contaminant removal from chemically-driven processes to a biodegradation process, resulting in chemical and cost savings that can improve the sustainability of the overall drinking water treatment process. Despite reliance on biofilms to provide contaminant biodegradation, the functional potential of microbial communities present in drinking water biofilters is still largely unknown. Therefore, the overarching objective of this research program is to provide new insights into the functional potential of the microbial communities present in drinking water biofilters. Specific themes of this research program include identifying novel parameters that have potential to rapidly indicate the overall bioactivity and viability of the biofilter microbiome, exploring the underlying microbial community structure associated with bioactivity outcomes and developing treatment technologies that support active and functional core microbiomes. This research program will train an estimated eight highly qualified personnel over a five-year period. The overall research program will strive to advance biofiltration knowledge to support sustainable water treatment. It is anticipated that findings from this research program will support drinking water treatment innovation by contributing to the understanding of the metabolic and phylogenetic conditions present in biofilters.