Bioaugmentation with the resin acid-degrading bacterium Zoogloea resiniphila DhA-35 to counteract pH stress in an aerated lagoon treating pulp and paper mill effluent

Efficient and reliable removal of resin acids such as dehydroabietic acid (DhA), which are the major toxicants in pulp and paper mill effluents and form pitch interfering with papermaking, is critically important to prevent toxicity discharge and failure of paper machines. Low- and high-pH stresses sometimes occur in effluent treatment systems due to the use of large amounts of acids and alkalines in the pulping processes. We found that both low- and high-pH stresses (pH 3 and 10, respectively) decreased the removal of total organic carbon and completely inhibited the removal of DhA by the biomass of an aerated lagoon treating pulp mill effluent. The pH stresses caused changes in the bacterial community structure as assessed by ribosomal intergenic spacer length polymorphism. The pH stresses greatly reduced the indigenous DhA-degrading populations in the lagoon community. Bioaugmentation with Zoogloea resiniphila DhA-35, a DhA-degrading bacterium originally isolated from a pulp mill treatment system, restored the DhA removal by both the low- and high-pH-stressed lagoon biomass. This bacterium was persistent after introduction into the lagoon microbial community, and its cellular rRNA:rDNA ratio increased during the period of DhA removal. The introduction of strain DhA-35 changed the microbial community structure, but did not adversely affect the TOC removal by the community. This study suggests that it is feasible and potentially useful to use bioaugmentation with resin-acid-degrading bacteria such as DhA-35 to restore and enhance resin acid removal by aerated lagoon microbial communities.