Shan Huang

Princeton University | PU · Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are emerging contaminants of concern due to their health effects and persistence in the environment. Although perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs), such as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) are very difficult to biodegrade because they are completely saturated with fluorine, it...

Until recently, all known nitrite oxidation occurred in oxygen-rich conditions but now the oxidation of nitrite into nitrate within a low oxygen or anoxic environment has been observed in the ocean. However, this phenomenon is rarely reported in wastewater treatments and its mechanism is unknown. In this study, the partial nitrification and nitrite...

Intensified agricultural activities can motivate the whole biogeochemical cycles in the agroecosystem which has adverse effects on greenhouse effect, soil contamination, and eutrophication of lakes and streams. Agricultural source is the main cause of water pollution globally, particularly in countries requesting intensified agricultural activities...

The background of global water lacking situation Water resources are necessary for sustaining human life and life of other living organisms, assuring manufacturing and agriculture. However, anthropogenic factors, natural geochemical and biological processes, climate change processes lead to disruptions of water ecosystems, worsening water quality a...

The increasing contamination of heavy metals in agricultural soils and its impact on the nitrogen (N) cycle and N use efficiency have attracted considerable attention in recent years. In this study, agricultural soils neighboring the Dabaoshan copper mining area (DBS) and Qingyuan electronic-waste recycling area (QY), in Guangdong, China, were samp...

Acidimicrobiaceae sp. strain A6 (A6), is an anaerobic autotrophic bacterium capable of oxidizing ammonium (NH4⁺) while reducing ferric iron and is also able to defluorinate PFAS under these growth conditions. A6 is exoelectrogenic and can grow in microbial electrolysis cells (MECs) by using the anode as the electron acceptor in lieu of ferric iron....

Anaerobic incubations were performed with biosolids obtained from an industrial wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) that contained perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), and with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances- (PFAS) free, laboratory-generated, biosolids that were spiked with PFOA. Biosolid slurries were incubated for 150 days as is, after augmenting w...

Frequent and intense storm disturbances can have widespread and strong effects on the nitrogen and iron cycles and their associated microbial communities in estuary systems. A three-year investigation was conducted in the Pearl River and Zhanjiang estuaries in Guangdong Province, China through repeated sampling at three timepoints, defined as pre-s...

The black-odor phenomenon in polluted urban rivers is a serious environmental problem that has received increasing attention in the recent years. The low redox potential (less than − 100 mV) in the sediment is considered to be the key factor causing the occurrence of black-odor phenomenon. Here, we studied the structure and function of the microbia...

The current research regarding anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) for the treatment of landfill leachate mainly focuses on a temperature range of 30–35 °C. However, achieving and maintaining anammox at lower temperatures would widen its application for the treatment of landfill leachate. This study, attempts to address this issue by using a com...

Photodegradation of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) by UV irradiation could remove this environmentally persistent chemical from aqueous solution, but its efficiency needs to be further optimized. This study introduced foam fractionation technique, which utilizing the surface activity of PFOS, to promote the removal efficiency of PFOS during photo...

Although constructed wetlands (CWs) are widely used around the world with various substrates, the mechanisms of how these modified substrates affect wastewater treatment are still unknown. In this study, CW microcosms were established with and without ceramsite as a substrate, and the wastewater treatment efficiencies were evaluated during 71 days...

Under anaerobic conditions, ammonium (NH4+) can react with nitrite (NO2-) and sulfate (SO42-), termed nitrite-anammox (NirAnammox) and sulfate-anammox (Sulfammox), respectively. However, how to remove NH4+ and SO42- together from leachate is unclear. In this study, NirAnammox and Sulfammox cooperatively achieved nitrogen and sulfate removal from le...

Incubations with pure and enrichment cultures of Acidimicrobium sp. strain A6 (A6), an autotroph that oxidizes ammonium to nitrite while reducing ferric iron, were conducted in the presence of PFOA or PFOS at 0.1 mg/L and 100 mg/L. Buildup of fluoride, shorter-chain perfluorinated products, and acetate was observed, as well as a decrease in Fe(III)...

Autotrophic denitrification under acidic conditions using sulfide (S2-), elemental sulfur (S0), and thiosulfate (S2O32-) as electron donors are evaluated. Results from batch and column experiments show that when different S species were supplied, different pH conditions and denitrifier communities were required for denitrification to occur. Nitrate...

The challenge of sludge digester liquor treatment is its high ammonium nitrogen (NH4+-N) concentration. Early reports found that complete ammonia oxidation (comammox) was not present and anaerobic ammonia oxidation (anammox) was difficult to achieve in most sludge digester liquor treatments. In this study, NH4+-N removal by cooperation between part...

An up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor (UASB), anoxic/oxic (A/O)–anaerobic ammonia oxidation reactor (ANAOR or anammox reactor), and anaerobic sequencing batch reactor (ASBR) were employed in the treatment of landfill leachate with partial nitrification-anammox and half-denitrification-anammox. The Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) concentration, a...

The degradation of trichloroethylene (TCE) and tetrachloroethylene (PCE), in incubations where ammonium was oxidized while iron was being reduced indicates that these compounds can be degraded during the Feammox process by Acidimicrobiaceae sp. A6 (ATCC, PTA-122488). None of these compounds were degraded in incubations to which no ammonium was adde...

This work presented the sequences of activated sludge from two municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) located in a high altitude Plateau in Tibet, China (∼3650 m above the sea level). Sequencing data are the 16S rRNA gene amplicons of V4–V5 region that sequenced on an Illumina HiSeq PE250 platform. Data presented here include detail descript...

The simultaneous partial nitrification, anammox and denitrification (SNAD) process for treating mainstream wastewater was investigated under different intermittent aeration modes. By controlling the aeration time of 20, 60 and 180 min during the intermittent modes, the oxygen concentration remained 3.50, 1.45 and 0.70 mg·L ⁻¹ . Correspondingly, the...

Nitrifiers and denitrifiers play a critical role in nitrogen removal in urban river sediments that are also affected by agricultural activities. However, the seasonal variations and vertical profile of these organisms in these river sediments are not well understood. In this study, the seasonal and depth (0 to 30 cm) distributions of the abundance...

Acidimicrobiaceae sp. A6 (ATCC, PTA-122488), a strain that has been previously reported to play a key role in the oxidation of ammonium (NH4⁺) under iron reducing conditions, has now been isolated from riparian wetland soils in New Jersey, USA. Incubations of this strain in a medium containing ferrihydrite as the ferric iron [Fe(III)] source, CO2 a...

Supporting information: Supplemental methods, materials, and results. (DOCX)

Chemical analyses data. (XLSX)

Previous studies have confirmed that house dust is one of the main sources of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) exposure, and also indicated that PBDEs might affect human semen quality. The aim of this study was to explore the association between PBDEs concentration in house dust and the semen quality of male resident. Results showed that the...

Traditional domestic wastewater treatments rely on aerobic processes followed by anaerobic processes. The aerobic step in which ammonium and organic carbon are oxidized, calls for large oxygen input, while the anaerobic process often requires extra carbon input. The challenge of synchronizing both processes is to maintain an active nitrifiers sludg...

Previous studies have shown that Tims Branch wetlands on the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, USA is an effective environmental sink for sequestering the 44 tons of uranium (U) released into the system. The objective of this study was to evaluate over the course of a year, the fluctuations in sediment porewater U concentrations as a function...

The oxidation of ammonium (NH4+) under iron reducing conditions, also referred to as Feammox, has been described in recent years by several investigators. The environmental characteristics in which the Feammox process occurs need to be understood in order to determine its contribution to the nitrogen cycle. In this study, through extensive field sa...

Wetlands attenuate the migration of many contaminants through a wide range of biogeochemical reactions. Recent research has shown that the rhizosphere, the zone near plant roots, in wetlands is especially effective at promoting contaminant attenuation. The objective of this study was to compare the soil organic matter (OM) composition and microbial...

This study investigated the possibility of links between the biological immobilization of uranium (U) and ammonium oxidation under iron (Fe) reducing conditions. The recently-identified Acidimicrobiaceae bacterium A6 (ATCC, PTA-122488) derives energy from ammonium oxidation coupled with Fe reduction. This bacterium has been found in various soil an...

In order to better understand the fate and stability of immobilized uranium (U) in wetland sediments, and how intermittent dry periods affect U stability, we dosed saturated sandy wetland mesocosms planted with Scirpus acutus with low levels of uranyl acetate for 4 months before imposing a short drying and rewetting period. Concentrations of U in m...

Incubation experiments were conducted using soil samples from a forested riparian wetland where we have previously observed anaerobic ammonium oxidation coupled to iron reduction. Production of both nitrite and ferrous iron was measured repeatedly during incubations when the soil slurry was supplied with either ferrihydrite or goethite and ammonium...

Incubation experiments were conducted using soil samples from a forested riparian wetland where we have previously observed anaerobic ammonium oxidation coupled to iron reduction. Production of both nitrite and ferrous iron were measured repeatedly during incubations when the soil slurry was supplied with either ferrihydrite or goethite and ammoniu...

The aim of this study was to investigate the benthic bacterial communities in different depths of an urban river sediment accumulated with high concentrations of nutrients and metals. Vertical distributions of bacterial operational taxonomic units (OTUs) and chemical parameters (nutrients: NH 4+, NO 3−, dissolved organic carbon, and acid volatile s...

To establish the relationship between polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and various stages of denitrification under denitrifying conditions in sediments, we examined the impact of PAHs on the vertical distribution of special denitrifying genes. In March of 2011, sediment samples were collected from three representative locations along the Pea...

Purpose Nitrate (NO 3−) is often considered to be removed mainly through microbial respiratory denitrification coupled with carbon oxidation. Alternatively, NO 3− may be reduced by chemolithoautotrophic bacteria using sulfide as an electron donor. The aim of this study was to quantify the NO 3− reduction process with sulfide oxidation under differe...

To better understand the bacterial processes in river sediments, it is necessary to investigate the depth-related bacterial communities in the whole sediment profile. Sediment samples were collected to a depth of 25cm from the Pearl River. Bacterial abundance, activity, cell-specific respiration rate, and diversity were measured, respectively, by 4...

Denitrification in river sediments leads to nitrate removal from the aquatic system; therefore, it is necessary to understand functional diversity of denitrifier communities in the system. Sediment samples (0–25 cm depth) were col-lected from three typical locations along the Pearl River. The real-time PCR approach was used to measure the abundance...

Denitrification in river sediments leads to nitrate removal from the aquatic system; therefore, it is necessary to understand functional diversity of denitrifier communities in the system. Sediment samples (0–25 cm depth) were collected from three typical locations along the Pearl River. The real-time PCR approach was used to measure 5 the abundanc...

The factors affecting the DAPI (4', 6-diamidino-2-phenylidole) fluorescence direct count in the tidal river sediment were examined. Sediment samples were collected from the Guangzhou section of the Pearl River. Besides sediment texture and organic matter, an improved staining procedure and the involved parameters were analyzed. Results showed that...

To better understand the mechanisms of eutrophication, we addressed the microbial processes that influence many key aspects of water-sediment systems. In this study, a large column experiment was conducted for 30 d. Along the column, solution samples were collected at different locations at different time. The samples were analyzed for physical, ch...