Mapping anaerobic sludge bed community adaptations to manure supernatant in biogas reactors.

In upflow anaerobic sludge bed (UASB) reactors, biomass present as granules allows for long solids retention time. Here, granules from a process treating pulp and paper industrial wastewater were successfully applied as inoculum in UASB reactors treating pig manure supernatant, despite high particle content and high ammonium concentrations in the influent. We did a detailed characterization of archaeal and bacterial communities associated with the inoculum and with the aggregated and dispersed fractions of the influent and the reactors after one year of operation. The granular communities underwent major changes and adapted to the highly distinct conditions without disintegration of the granules. Although the granules persisted in the reactors, non-granular aggregates accumulated, and partly replaced the granules. Particles introduced to the reactors by the pig manure influent apparently contributed both as food and biofilm growth support. Archaeal communities in the dispersed reactor phase were similar to those dispersed in the influents, implying successful retention and little loss of archaeal biomass due to detachment or disintegration of granules and other aggregates. Unique bacterial communities developed in the dispersed fraction of the reactors despite of low hydraulic retention times. They probably consisted of fast growing organisms consuming readily degradable organic matter.

Anaerobic digestion of pig manure supernatant at high ammonia concentrations characterized by high abundances of Methanosaeta and non-euryarchaeotal archaea.

We examined the effect of ammonium and temperature on methane production in high rate upflow anaerobic sludge bed reactors treating pig manure supernatant. We operated four reactors at two ammonium concentrations ('low' at 1.9, 'high' at 3.7 g L-1, termed LA and HA reactors, respectively) and at variable temperatures over 358 days. Archaeal and bacterial communities were characterized by Illumina sequencing of 16S rRNA amplicons. Ammonium was a major selective factor for bacterial and archaeal community structure. After ~200 days of adaptation to high ammonium levels, acetate and propionate removal and methane production improved substantially in HA reactors. Aceticlastic Methanosaeta was abundant and positively correlated to methane yield in the HA reactors, whereas Methanosarcina was more abundant in LA reactors. Furthermore, a group of monophyletic OTUs that was related to Thaumarchaeota in phylogenetic analysis was highly abundant in the archaeal communities, particularly in the HA reactors. The most abundant bacterial OTU in LA reactors, representing Syntrophomonadaceae, was also positively correlated to methane yield in the HA reactors, indicating its importance in methane production under ammonia stress. In conclusion, efficient methane production, involving aceticlastic methanogenesis by Methanosaeta took place in the reactors at free ammonia concentrations as high as 1 g L-1.

High rate manure supernatant digestion.

The study shows that high rate anaerobic digestion may be an efficient way to obtain sustainable energy recovery from slurries such as pig manure. High process capacity and robustness to 5% daily load increases are observed in the 370 mL sludge bed AD reactors investigated. The supernatant from partly settled, stored pig manure was fed at rates giving hydraulic retention times, HRT, gradually decreased from 42 to 1.7 h imposing a maximum organic load of 400 g COD L(-1) reactor d(-1). The reactors reached a biogas production rate of 97 g COD L(-1) reactor d(-1) at the highest load at which process stress signs were apparent. The yield was ∼0.47 g COD methane g(-1) CODT feed at HRT above 17 h, gradually decreasing to 0.24 at the lowest HRT (0.166 NL CH4 g(-1) CODT feed decreasing to 0.086). Reactor pH was innately stable at 8.0 ± 0.1 at all HRTs with alkalinity between 9 and 11 g L(-1). The first stress symptom occurred as reduced methane yield when HRT dropped below 17 h. When HRT dropped below 4 h the propionate removal stopped. The yield from acetate removal was constant at 0.17 g COD acetate removed per g CODT substrate. This robust methanogenesis implies that pig manure supernatant, and probably other similar slurries, can be digested for methane production in compact and effective sludge bed reactors. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) analysis indicated a relatively fast adaptation of the microbial communities to manure and implies that non-adapted granular sludge can be used to start such sludge bed bioreactors.