Abstract
Anaerobic digestion (AD) is used to minimize solid waste while producing biogas by the action of microorganisms. To give an insight into the underlying microbial dynamics in anaerobic digesters, we investigated two different AD systems (wastewater sludge mixed with either fish or grass waste). The microbial activity was characterized by 16S RNA sequencing. 16S data is sparse and dispersed, and existent data analysis methods do not take into account this complexity nor the potential microbial interactions. In this line, we proposed a data pre-processing pipeline addressing these issues while not restricting only to the most abundant microorganisms. The data were analyzed by Common Components Analysis (CCA) to decipher the effect of substrate composition on the microorganisms. CCA results hinted the relationships between the microorganisms responding similarly to the AD physicochemical parameters. Thus, in overall, CCA allowed a better understanding of the inter-species interactions within microbial communities.
Highlights
Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a well-established multistep process for the treatment of organic waste that generates biogas, a gas mixture composed of CH4 and CO2, by the action of the microorganisms growing in the anaerobic digesters [1]
We have investigated from a microbial perspective the anaerobic co-digestion (AcoD) of wastewater sludge (WAS) with garden grass (GG) and fish waste (FW) co-substrates, using the performance experiment presented in Cardona et al (2019) [10]
4 of those 8 Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) were found in FW-digesters, while the number of Archaeal OTUs found in GG-digesters was of 6
Summary
Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a well-established multistep process for the treatment of organic waste that generates biogas, a gas mixture composed of CH4 and CO2, by the action of the microorganisms growing in the anaerobic digesters [1]. A critical parameter in AD is the carbon-to-nitrogen (C/N) ratio. AD has been used with wastewater sludge (WAS) obtained from wastewater treatment plants. The low C/N ratio of WAS can lead to low digestion efficiency rates and to low biogas production yields [2]. In order to improve WAS conversion to biogas, it can be digested in combination with other substrates richer in carbon. This strategy is known as anaerobic co-digestion (AcoD)
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