Shift in bacterial diversity in acidogenesis of gelatin and gluten seeded with various anaerobic digester inocula

Altering operational conditions during protein fermentation to volatile fatty acids modifies the associated bacterial community

In recent years, the production of volatile fatty acids (VFA) through mixed culture fermentation (MCF) has been gaining attention. Most authors have focused on the fermentation of carbohydrates, while other possible substrates, such as proteins, have not been considered. Moreover, there is little information about how operational parameters affect the microbial communities involved in these processes, even though they are strongly related to reactor performance and VFA selectivity. Hence, this study aims to evaluate how microbial composition changes according to three different parameters (pH, type of protein and micronutrient addition) during anaerobic fermentation of protein-rich side streams. For this, two continuous stirred tank reactors (CSTR) were fed with two different proteins (casein and gelatine) and operated at different conditions: three pH values (5.0, 7.0 and 9.0) with only macronutrients supplementation and two pH values (5.0 and 7.0) with micronutrients' supplementation as well. Firmicutes, Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes were the dominant phyla in the two reactors at all operational conditions, but their relative abundance varied with the parameters studied. At pH 7.0 and 9.0, the microbial composition was mainly affected by protein type, while at acidic conditions the driving force was the pH. The influence of micronutrients was dependent on the pH and the protein type, with a special effect on Clostridiales and Bacteroidales populations. Overall, this study shows that the acidogenic microbial community is affected by the three parameters studied and the changes in the microbial community can partially explain the macroscopic results, especially the process selectivity.

Impact of co-substrate molecular weight on methane production potential, microbial community dynamics, and metabolic pathways in waste activated sludge anaerobic co-digestion

Proteins and carbohydrates are important organics in waste activated sludge, and greatly affect methane production and microbial community composition in anaerobic digestion systems. Here, a series of co-substrates with different molecular weight were applied to investigate the interactions between microbial dynamics and the molecular weight of co-substrates. Biochemical methane production assays conducted in batch co-digesters showed that feeding high molecular weight protein and carbohydrate substrates resulted in higher methane yield and production rates. Moreover, high-molecular weight co-substrates increased the microbial diversity, enriched specific microbes including Longilinea, Anaerolineaceae, Syner-01, Methanothrix, promoted acidogenic and acetoclastic methanogenic pathways. Low-molecular weight co-substrates favored the growth of JGI-0000079-D21, Armatimonadota, Methanosarcina, Methanolinea, and improved hydrogenotrophic methanogenic pathway. Besides, Methanoregulaceae and Methanolinea were indicators of methane yield. This study firstly revealed the complex interactions between co-substrate molecular weight and microbial communities, and demonstrated the feasibility of adjusting co-substrate molecular weight to improve methane production process.

Continuous production of high-concentrated ammonia broth through fermentation

Being considered as a valuable resource and energy carrier, extensive research is going on to efficiently extract ammonia (NH3) from anaerobic digestate. However, due to the well-known NH3 inhibition on methanogens, the total NH3 nitrogen (TAN) concentration is typically limited to 1-4 g N/L in digestate, making the NH3 extraction process energy-consumptive. Here, NH3 fermentation, specifically targeting augmented NH3 production through biological reaction, was performed in a continuous mode. With the increase of gelatin input (10 to 150 g COD/L), NH3 concentration and volumetric productivity gradually increased, reaching 12.0 g TAN-N/L and 36.0 g NH3-N/L/d, which were the highest values ever reported. The stepwise increase in NH3 exposure prompted a shift in microbial dominance towards Hathewaya (from 1 % to 68 %), a critical factor for having high NH3 tolerance. Finally, NH3 stripping results suggested that highly concentrated broth could reduce the specific energy consumption for NH3 extraction to 1/3.

Effect of fish waste augmentation on anaerobic co-digestion of sludge with food waste

The effect of sudden augmentation with fish waste (FW) on an operating anaerobic digester was investigated. Fifteen repeated FW spikes (FWS) composed of 1% or 5% FW per working volume of digester were suddenly fed into semi-continuous operation of a mixture of sludge and food waste. Overall process efficiency was not inhibited by FW augmentation. The bacterial community were clustered differently in the 5% FWS treatment than in the control and 1% FWS. Protein-degrading bacteria (Porphyromonadacea, Family XI, and Family XII) were commonly found in the 5% FWS treatment. Their proportions positively correlated with numbers of other bacteria and dominant methanogens (Methanosaeta and Methanospirillum), showing their important role in FWS digestion. FWS caused a shift of bacteria community, but an increase in archaeal concentration. Therefore, sudden addition of an appropriate amount of FW to existing digesters did not provoke process failure. This result contributes an ecologically-benign method to process FW.

Effect of different microbial seeds on batch anaerobic digestion of fish waste

Initial microbial compositions would be the precursor for the efficient anaerobic digestion (AD) of fish waste (FW). A mesophilic batch test was conducted using four seeds collected from different digesters treating various combinations of substrates to investigate their effects on FW degradation. Key microbial groups were identified by 16s rRNA gene-based metagenomics analysis. Among four, the seed from the digester co-digesting livestock manure, food waste, and food wastewater showed the best performance and obtained the highest methane yield (350.5 ± 5.2 mL/gVS_added) and lowest lag phase (0.6 ± 0.1 d). Proteiniphilum, Aminobacterium, dgA-11 gut group, and Syntrophomonas were dominant bacterial genera identified in FW degradation. Methanosaeta was the dominant methanogen in the best performing seed and microbial network analysis revealed its contribution to achieving the highest CH₄ yield. Obtained results could be useful in selecting microbial seed sources to avoid system imbalance in full-scale digesters that treat FW.

Shift in methanogenic community in protein degradation using different inocula

Anaerobic digestion (AD) of protein-rich wastes is problematic due to production of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide. In this work, eight inocula were used in batch AD of solutions of gelatin and gluten at 3 g COD substrate/1g VSS inoculum. AD plants from which inocula originated were treating food waste or food wastewater, wastewater sludge, or a combination of them. Inocula were evaluated by fitting methane production data using the modified Gompertz model. Sequencing of 16 s rRNA of microorganisms showed that Methanoculleus was dominant in inocula from plants that were treating food waste, and Methanosaeta was dominant in the others. The maximum methane production rate varied by a factor of three for each substrate: 2.734-7.438 mLCH₄ gCOD^-1 d^-1 for gelatin, and 1.950 to 5.532 mLCH₄ gCOD^-1 d^-1 for gluten. This study demonstrates that inoculum must be chosen appropriately when treating proteinaceous waste by AD.