Environmental effects and risk control of antibiotic resistance genes in the organic solid waste aerobic composting system: A review

• ARGs were detected in livestock manure, sludge, food waste and fermentation dregs. • The succession of microbial community is an important factor affecting ARGs. • Horizontal transfer mechanism of ARGs during composting should be further studied. Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) have been diffusely detected in several kinds of organic solid waste, such as livestock manure, sludge, antibiotic fermentation residues, and food waste, thus attracting great attention. Aerobic composting, which is an effective, harmless treatment method for organic solid waste to promote recycling, has been identified to also aid in ARG reduction. However, the effect of composting in removing ARGs from organic solid waste has recently become controversial. Thus, this article summarizes and reviews the research on ARGs in relation to composting in the past 5 years. ARGs in organic solid waste could spread in different environmental media, including soil and the atmosphere, which could widen environmental risks. However, the conventional composting technology had limited effect on ARGs removal from organic solid waste. Improved composting processes, such as hyperthermophilic temperature composting, could effectively remove ARGs, and the HGT of ARGs and the microbial communities are identified as vital influencing factors. Currently, during the composting process, ARGs were mainly affected by three response pathways, (I) “Microenvironment-ARGs”; (II) “Microenvironment-microorganisms-ARGs”; (III) “Microorganisms-horizontal gene transfer-ARGs”, respectively. Response pathway II had been studied the most which was believed that microbial community was an important factor affecting ARGs. In response pathway III, mainly believed that MGEs played an important role and paid less attention to eARGs. Further research on the role and impact of eARGs in ARGs may be considered in the future. It aims to provide support for further research on environmental risk control of ARGs in organic solid waste.     

Combination of the direct electro-Fenton process and bioremediation for the treatment of pyrene-contaminated soil in a slurry reactor

A combined treatment technology (DEF-BIO) using the direct electro-Fenton (DEF) process and bioremediation (BIO) was established in this study. The performance of the DEF-BIO process on the remediation of a pyrene (PYR)-contaminated soil was evaluated in a slurry reactor. The appropriate order of application was to conduct the DEF process followed by BIO, evaluated through analysis of the degradation characteristics of each process individually. In addition, the application time of the DEF process affected the efficiency of the combined process. The optimum time to apply the DEF process was determined through an analysis of the induced changes in PYR intermediates, pH, soil organic matter (SOM) and bacteria. The optimum application time of the DEF process was 6 h. All the induced changes were beneficial for the BIO phase. The removal of PYR was 91.02% for DEF–BIO after 72 h, and the efficiency was almost 50% increased, compared with the individual DEF and BIO treatments. Therefore, the combined process of DEF–BIO process may be an efficient and promising method for the remediation.