Early-stage response in anaerobic bioreactors due to high sulfate loads: Hydrogen sulfide yield and other organic volatile sulfur compounds as a sign of microbial community modifications

Abstract

In this work, the early-stage response of six lab-scale biogas bioreactors fed with different amounts of a sulfate-rich organic agro-industrial effluent was investigated. Biogas characterization, gas chromatography selective for sulfur compounds and high-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA gene were performed. Hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) yield went from transient to steady state in ∼ 2 weeks for all the studied conditions. In addition, volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs), like methanethiol (MeSH) and dimethyl sulfide (DMS), were generated at high sulfate loads. Changes were evidenced in the microbial community structures, with a higher abundance of genes involved in the dissimilatory sulfate-reduction pathway in high loaded sulfate bioreactors, as determined by PICRUSt analysis. Principal component analysis (PCA) and correlation analyses evidenced strong relationships between H₂S, VSCs and the microbial community. Sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) like Desulfocarbo, Desulfocella and Desulfobacteraceae might be possibly linked with methylation processes of H₂S.

Keywords: Biogas; Microbial Community; Sulfate; Sulfide; Volatile Sulfur Compounds.