Development of sulfidogenic sludge from marine sediments and trichloroethylene reduction in an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor

The importance of microbial sulfate reduction relies on the various applications that it offers in environmental biotechnology. Engineered sulfate reduction is used in industrial wastewater treatment to remove large concentrations of sulfate along with the chemical oxygen demand (COD) and heavy metals. The most common approach to the process is with anaerobic bioreactors in which sulfidogenic sludge is obtained through adaptation of predominantly methanogenic granular sludge to sulfidogenesis. This process may take a long time and does not always eliminate the competition for substrate due to the presence of methanogens in the sludge. In this work, we propose a novel approach to obtain sulfidogenic sludge in which hydrothermal vents sediments are the original source of microorganisms. The microbial community developed in the presence of sulfate and volatile fatty acids is wide enough to sustain sulfate reduction over a long period of time without exhibiting inhibition due to sulfide. This protocol describes the procedure to generate the sludge from the sediments in an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) type of reactor. Furthermore, the protocol presents the procedure to demonstrate the capability of the sludge to remove by reductive dechlorination a model of a highly toxic organic pollutant such as trichloroethylene (TCE). The protocol is divided in three stages: (1) the formation of the sludge and the determination of its sulfate reducing activity in the UASB, (2) the experiment to remove the TCE by the sludge, and (3) the identification of microorganisms in the sludge after the TCE reduction. Although in this case the sediments were taken from a site located in Mexico, the generation of a sulfidogenic sludge by using this procedure may work if a different source of sediments is taken since marine sediments are a natural pool of microorganisms that may be enriched in sulfate reducing bacteria.