Microbial community adaptation influences long-chain fatty acid conversion during anaerobic codigestion of fats, oils, and grease with municipal sludge

• Codigesting fats, oils, and greases with municipal wastewater sludge can greatly improve biomethanerecovery at wastewater treatment facilities. Process loading rates of fats, oils, and greases have beenpreviously tested with little knowledge of the digester microbial community structure, and high transientfat loadings have led to long chain fatty acid (LCFA) accumulation and digester upsets. This studyutilized recently-developed quantitative PCR assays for syntrophic LCFA-degrading bacteria along with16S amplicon sequencing to relate changes in microbial community structure to LCFA accumulationduring transient loading increases to an anaerobic codigester receiving waste restaurant oil andmunicipal wastewater sludge. The 16S rRNA gene concentration of the syntrophic b-oxidizing genusSyntrophomonas increased to ~15% of the Bacteria community in the codigester, but stayed below 3% inthe control digester that was fed only wastewater sludge. Methanosaeta and Methanospirillum were thedominant methanogenic genera enriched in the codigester, and together comprised over 80% of theArchaea community by the end of the experimental period. Constrained ordination showed that changesin the codigester Bacteria and Archaea community structures were related to measures of digester performance.Notably, the effluent LCFA concentration in the codigester was positively correlated to thespecific loading rate of waste oil normalized to the Syntrophomonas 16S rRNA concentration. Specificloading rates of 0e1.5 1012 g VS oil/16S gene copies-day resulted in LCFA concentrations below 30 mg/g TS, whereas LCFA accumulated up to 104 mg/g TS at higher transient loading rates. Based on thecommunity-dependent loading limitations found, enhanced biomethane production from high loadingsof fats, oils and greases can be achieved by promoting a higher biomass of slow-growing syntrophicconsortia, such as with longer digester solids retention times. This work also demonstrates the potentialfor controlling the loading rate of fats, oils, and greases based on the analysis of the codigester communitystructure, such as with quantitative PCR measurements of syntrophic LCFA-degrading bacteriaabundance.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Mikrobiologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Microbiology (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Ekologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Ecology (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Biokemi och molekylärbiologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Anaerobic digestion Fats Oils Grease (FOG) Long-chain fatty acids (LCFA) Biogas Syntrophy Methanogen

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