Reconfigurable modular microbiota systems for efficient and sustainable water treatment

Carbon capture and utilization (CCU) of microorganisms is widely expected to provide fresh insight into oil wastewater treatment due to green and sustainable processing, and the constant pursuit of high efficiency and sufficient waste utilization to combat climate change calls for the development of advanced engineering microbiology. Here, we explored and proposed a brand-new method to improve CCU in oil wastewater treatment using modular microbiota systems (MMSs). The modular assembly of microorganisms developed in this study allowed for efficient synergy and the design of carbon exchange routes on demand. The microfluidic-assisted assembly of MMSs achieved high specific surface area and good monodispersity during treatment. And the functionalized biomaterials immobilized MMSs possess adsorption to the oil pollutant and settleability for bioresources harvesting. The practical treatment process has validated feasibility and performance of this strategy. The MMSs achieved a breakthrough seven-day crude treatment efficiency (10 g/L) of 95.8 %, and the carbon utilization (lipid accumulation) of MMSs was elevated from 0.1079 g/L to 0.2081 g/L as compared to normal algae culture treatment. The MMSs showed reliable and efficient CCU in different environmental tests. Moreover, the reconfigurable modular microbiota assembly endows this method with superior scalability, which should enable diverse water treatment applications in global settings and provide a potential path for on-demand waste conversion to bioenergy.