Thermophilic anaerobic conversion of raw microalgae: Microbial community diversity in high solids retention systems

[EN] The potential of microbial communities for efficient anaerobic conversion of raw microalgae was evaluated in this work. A long-term operated thermophilic digester was fed with three different Organic Loading Rates (OLR) (0.2, 0.3 and 0.4¿g·L¿1·d¿1) reaching 32¿41% biodegradability values. The microbial community analysis revealed a remarkable presence of microorganisms that exhibit high hydrolytic capabilities such as Thermotogae (~44.5%), Firmicutes (~17.6%) and Dictyoglomi, Aminicenantes, Atribacteria and Planctomycetes (below ~5.5%) phyla. The suggested metabolic role of these phyla highlights the importance of protein hydrolysis and fermentation when only degrading microalgae. The ecological analysis of the reactor suggests the implication of the novel group EM3 in fermentation and beta-oxidation pathways during microalgae conversion into methane. Scenedesmus spp. substrate and free ammonia concentration strongly shaped thermophilic reactor microbial structure. Partial Least Square Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA) remarked the resilient role of minor groups related to Thermogutta, Armatimonadetes and Ruminococcaceae against a potential inhibitor like free ammonia. Towards low-cost biogas production from microalgae, this study reveals valuable information about thermophilic microorganisms that can strongly disrupt microalgae and remain in high solids retention anaerobic digesters.This research work has been supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO, Project CTM2011-28595-C02-02) jointly with the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), which are gratefully acknowledged. The authors are thankful to Fernando Fdz-Polanco research team (University of Valladolid, Spain) for providing the thermophilic sludge from their pilot plant to inoculate the bioreactor and Llúcia Martínez and Giusseppe D'Aria from FISABIO sequencing service (Valencia, Spain) for their technical support during the Illumina sequencing design.Zamorano-López, N.; Greses-Huerta, S.; Aguado García, D.; Seco Torrecillas, A.; Borrás Falomir, L. (2019). Thermophilic anaerobic conversion of raw microalgae: Microbial community diversity in high solids retention systems. Algal Research. 41:1-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.algal.2019.101533194