Metagenomic analysis of different filtration stages in an oil refinery wastewater treatment plant

The process of oil refining releases a large amount of wastewater containing a number of different simple and complex hydrocarbons such as naphthenic acids that are toxic to the environment. This wastewater can be remediated at treatment facilities to remove these toxic constituents, which involve both mechanical and biological means of filtration by an uncharacterized bacterial community. Furthermore, the plant experiences intermittent and hard to predict failures which can lead to the release of toxic wastewater into the environment. It is hypothesized that the microbial communities present in the wastewater could play a role in such failures. As such, identifying and analyzing the functional characteristics microbial communities could reveal their roles in wastewater processing, which could further aid in predicting and preventing plant failures. The goal of this study is to perform metagenomic sequencing on the Oxford Nanopore platform to assemble complete genomes and sub-genomic fragments at each treatments stage. We can also identify active genes at each treatment stage by obtaining the meta-transcriptome by Illumina sequencing, and referencing it to our completed genomes. By comparing and identifying which bacteria are present and their functional characteristics between each stage of treatment, we can determine potential pathways of hydrocarbon degradation and potentially identify changes in the microbial constituents and metabolic capabilities that cause the plant to fail.