Bioaugmentation with a mixture of microorganisms (Bacteria and Archaea) was applied to improve the anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge. The study was performed in reactors operating at a temperature of 35 °C in semi-flow mode. Three runs with different doses of bioaugmenting mixture were conducted. Bioaugmentation of sewage sludge improved fermentation and allowed satisfactory biogas/methane yields and a biodegradation efficiency of more than 46%, despite the decrease in hydraulic retention time (HRT) from 20 d to 16.7 d. Moreover, in terms of biogas production, the rate constant k increased from 0.071 h-1 to 0.087 h-1 as doses of the bioaugmenting mixture were increased, as compared to values of 0.066 h-1 and 0.069 h-1 obtained with sewage sludge alone. Next-generation sequencing revealed that Cytophaga sp. predominated among Bacteria in digesters and that the hydrogenotrophic methanogen Methanoculleus sp. was the most abundant genus among Archaea.
Keywords: NGS; anaerobic digestion; bioaugmentation; metagenome; wastewater sludge.