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Applications of Microorganisms in Wastewater Treatment Processes
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Applications of Microorganisms in Wastewater Treatment Processes

A special issue of Processes (ISSN 2227-9717). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental and Green Processes".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 August 2026 | Viewed by 3183

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Yunmeng Pang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Energy and Environmental Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
Interests: microbial ecology; water treatment; solid-phase denitrification; autotrophic denitrification; emerging contaminant biodegradation; heavy-metal biomineralization
Dr. Yanan Yin

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Interests: biological recovery of value-added chemicals from wastewater and waste activated sludge
Dr. Zhenguo Chen

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Environment, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China
Interests: anammox; industrial wastewater biological treatment

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With the rapid promotion of urbanization and industrialization, the quantity of wastewater generated from production and daily life has been increasing annually, posing negative impacts on ecological environments and economic development. Compared to physical and chemical methods, biological treatments capitalize on the metabolic functions of microorganisms within systems to degrade and transform pollutants, thereby possessing numerous advantages in achieving wastewater purification. Due to their high treatment efficiency, low investment and operational costs, and convenient operation and management, biological methods have become one of the widely adopted approaches in the field of wastewater treatment.

This Special Issue, entitled “Applications of Microorganisms in Wastewater Treatment Processes”, will curate research which focuses on novel advances in process optimization and/or explores the intrinsic mechanisms of microorganisms applied in wastewater treatments. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, methods and/or applications in the following areas:

  1. Industrial-wastewater biological treatment;
  2. Nutrient (N and P) removal;
  3. Heavy-metal removal;
  4. Emerging-contaminant biodegradation;
  5. Bioflocculants;
  6. Microbial immobilization;
  7. Microbial fuel cells;
  8. Wastewater biorecovery.

Dr. Yunmeng Pang
Dr. Yanan Yin
Dr. Zhenguo Chen
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Processes is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • industrial-wastewater biological treatment
  • nutrient (N and P) removal
  • heavy-metal removal
  • emerging-contaminant biodegradation
  • bioflocculants
  • microbial immobilization
  • microbial fuel cells
  • wastewater biorecovery

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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15 pages, 3644 KB  
Article
Feasibility of Basalt Fiber Felt as Biocarrier for Rural Domestic Wastewater Treatment: Performance and Microbial Community Analysis
by Qian Xu, Yuxuan Zhai, Jilong Gao, Hai Lin and Yunmeng Pang
Processes 2026, 14(2), 349; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr14020349 - 19 Jan 2026
Viewed by 453
Abstract
In response to the intermittent discharge and frequent flow interruptions characteristic of rural domestic wastewater, this study evaluated the treatment performance and microbial mechanisms of basalt fiber (BF) felt as a novel biofilm carrier, with comparative analyses against traditional polyurethane (PU) carrier. Under [...] Read more.
In response to the intermittent discharge and frequent flow interruptions characteristic of rural domestic wastewater, this study evaluated the treatment performance and microbial mechanisms of basalt fiber (BF) felt as a novel biofilm carrier, with comparative analyses against traditional polyurethane (PU) carrier. Under continuous-flow conditions, both carriers showed no significant difference in the removal efficiencies of COD and NH4+-N. However, when switching to intermittent feeding mode with flow interruption, the BF reactor maintained high removal efficiencies for pollutants (COD, NH4+-N and TN removals averaged 90.5%, 89.4% and 64.5%, respectively), significantly outperforming the PU reactor (COD, NH4+-N and TN removals averaged 82.3%, 32.7% and 20.7%, respectively). High-throughput sequencing results revealed that the BF carrier significantly enriched nitrifiers (e.g., Nitrospira) and aerobic denitrifiers (e.g., Terrimonas and Bacillus) during the intermittent operation phase. Functional prediction further indicated increased abundances of functional genes associated with nitrification (amoA, hao), complete denitrification (narG, nosZ), as well as glycolysis (GAPDH) and the TCA cycle (IDH1, korA) related to NADH generation, suggesting an enhanced coupling mechanism of carbon and nitrogen metabolism in the BF system. Conversely, a significant reduction in microbial diversity and the abundance of relevant functional genes was observed on the traditional carriers. This study confirms that BF felt, serving as a biocarrier for rural domestic wastewater treatment, exhibits superior shock load resistance and nitrogen removal performance, which provides an efficient and reliable carrier option for decentralized wastewater treatment in rural areas. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Microorganisms in Wastewater Treatment Processes)
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18 pages, 18559 KB  
Article
Dynamic Restoration of Collapsed Anammox Biofilm Systems: Integrating Process Optimization, Microbial Community Succession, and Machine Learning-Based Prediction
by Li Wang, Yongxing Chen, Junfeng Yang, Jiayi Li, Yu Zhang and Xiaojun Wang
Processes 2025, 13(6), 1672; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr13061672 - 26 May 2025
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1035
Abstract
The majority of extant studies concentrate on the reactivation of dormant Anammox biomass or the recovery of activity under specific storage conditions. Research on rehabilitation strategies for anaerobic ammonium oxidation (Anammox) systems is limited, with the exception of research on inhibitory factors. The [...] Read more.
The majority of extant studies concentrate on the reactivation of dormant Anammox biomass or the recovery of activity under specific storage conditions. Research on rehabilitation strategies for anaerobic ammonium oxidation (Anammox) systems is limited, with the exception of research on inhibitory factors. The recovery characteristics of biofilm systems after collapse induced by varying degrees of ammonia-nitrogen and small-molecular organic compound composite shocks have not been thoroughly elucidated. This study addresses the collapse of Anammox biofilm systems caused by sodium acetate inhibition through multi-phase rehabilitation strategies, stoichiometric analysis, and microbial community succession dynamics. Two regression algorithms—Support Vector Regression (SVR) and eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost)—were employed to construct predictive models for Total Nitrogen Removal Efficiency (TNRE) and Total Nitrogen Removal Rate (TNRR) in the CANON system, with model performance evaluated via coefficient of determination (R2) and root mean square error (RMSE). Results demonstrated that after terminating moderate-to-high sodium acetate dosing (300 mg/L and 500 mg/L), reactors R300 and R500 achieved TNRE recovery to 57.98% and 58.86%, respectively, and TNRR of 0.281 and 0.275 kgN/m3·d within 60–100 days, indicating the reversibility of high-concentration sodium acetate inhibition but a positive correlation between recovery duration and inhibition intensity. Microbial community analysis revealed that Planctomycetota (including Candidatus_Kuenenia) rebounded to 46–49% relative abundance in R100, synchronized with TNRE improvement. In contrast, R300 and R500 exhibited ecological niche replacement of denitrifiers (Denitratisoma) and partial TNRE restoration despite enhanced performance. Model comparisons showed SVR outperformed XGBoost in TNRE prediction, whereas XGBoost demonstrated superior TNRR prediction accuracy with R2 approaching 1 and RMSE nearing 0, significantly surpassing SVR. This work provides critical insights into recovery mechanisms under organic inhibition stress and establishes a robust predictive framework for optimizing nitrogen removal performance in CANON systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Microorganisms in Wastewater Treatment Processes)
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Review

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16 pages, 1455 KB  
Review
Biodegradation Potential of Microplastics by Comamonas testosteroni in Wastewater and Sludge
by Adam Kulaczkowski, Vincent Apa and Rasha Maal-Bared
Processes 2026, 14(7), 1052; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr14071052 - 25 Mar 2026
Viewed by 779
Abstract
Comamonas testosteroni is an aerobic, Gram-negative bacterium belonging to the class of β-proteobacteria that is naturally present in soils, wastewater and sludge. It has recently gained popularity for its ability to act as a biocatalyst for the degradation of microplastics and other complex [...] Read more.
Comamonas testosteroni is an aerobic, Gram-negative bacterium belonging to the class of β-proteobacteria that is naturally present in soils, wastewater and sludge. It has recently gained popularity for its ability to act as a biocatalyst for the degradation of microplastics and other complex organics. Microplastics are globally considered as ubiquitous pollutants due to the increased use of polymers (plastics) which break down over time. In the urban water cycle, the drinking water treatment plants and the wastewater treatment plants are the first and last barriers to microplastics pollution, respectively. While conventional water and wastewater treatment has seen continuous technological improvements in producing cleaner effluents, industry technology adoption for the targeted removal of microplastics has been minimal. Therefore, the treatment of microplastics in soils and wastewater is of growing interest, and understanding C. testosteroni may provide insight into biological treatment and degradation of these pollutants. This review provides a summary of (1) favorable microbiological and environmental properties of C. testosteroni that lend themselves to bioremediation; (2) evidence of the bacterium’s ability to degrade microplastics, steroids, and organic pollutants; (3) implementation potential in the wastewater treatment process train; and (4) challenges and limitations in its application for microplastics biodegradation. Overall, while treatment applications of C. testosteroni through inoculation of media such as soil and wastewater are mentioned, further research into C. testosteroni concentrations found typically at wastewater treatment facilities would be beneficial. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Microorganisms in Wastewater Treatment Processes)
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