Volatile Fatty Acids Production from Microalgae Biomass: Anaerobic Digester Performance and Population Dynamics during Stable Conditions, Starvation, and Process Recovery.

ABSTRACT: Disturbances in anaerobic digestion (AD) negatively impact the overall reactor performance. These adverse effects have been widely investigated for methane generation. However, AD recently appeared as a potential technology to obtain volatile fatty acids (VFAs) and thus, the impact of process disturbances must be evaluated. In this sense, microbial response towards a starvation period of two weeks was investigated resulting in a conversion of organic matter into VFAs of 0.39 ± 0.03 COD-VFAs/CODin. However, the lack of feeding reduced the yield to 0.30 ± 0.02 COD-VFAs/CODin. Microbial analysis revealed that the starvation period favored the syntrophic acetate-oxidizing bacteria coupled with hydrogenotrophic methanogens. Finally, the system was fed at 9 g COD/Ld resulting in process recovery (0.39 ± 0.04 COD-VFAs/CODin). The different microbiome obtained at the end of the process was proved to be functionally redundant, highlighting the AD robustness for VFAs production.

SUBMITTER: Magdalena JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6943514 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature