Carbon/nitrogen flows and associated microbial communities in full-scale foodwaste treatment plants

Haihong Jiang; Weijun Gao; Qihong Lu; Shanquan Wang

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2023.129775

Carbon/nitrogen flows and associated microbial communities in full-scale foodwaste treatment plants

Bioresour Technol. 2023 Nov:388:129775. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2023.129775. Epub 2023 Sep 16.

Authors

Haihong Jiang¹, Weijun Gao¹, Qihong Lu¹, Shanquan Wang²

Affiliations

¹ Environmental Microbiomics Research Center, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Control and Remediation Technology, Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510006, China.
² Environmental Microbiomics Research Center, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Control and Remediation Technology, Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510006, China. Electronic address: wangshanquan@mail.sysu.edu.cn.

PMID: 37722539
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2023.129775

Abstract

Microorganisms play key roles in the conversion of organic matter in foodwaste. However, both the microbially-mediated element (carbon/C and nitrogen/N) flows and associated microbial communities in foodwaste treatment plants (FWTPs) remain unclear. This study collected samples of different foodwaste treatment units from five full-scale FWTPs to analyze the C/N flows and microbial communities in foodwaste treatment processes. Results showed that 39.8-45.0% of organic carbon in foodwaste was converted into biogas. Hydrolytic acidogenic bacteria (e.g., Lactobacillus and Limosilactobacillus) and eukaryota (e.g., Cafeteriaceae, Saccharomycetales, and Agaricomycetes) were more abundant in feedstock and pretreatment units. Redundancy analyses showed that acidogens were major players in the transformation of foodwaste organic matter. Populations of W27 and Tepidanaerobacter were major contributors to the difference in conversion of C/N in these FWTPs. This study could support foodwaste treatment efficiencies improvement by providing insights into C/N flows and associated microbiota in FWTPs.

Keywords: Anaerobic digestion; Carbon and nitrogen conversion; Foodwaste; Foodwaste treatment plant; Microbial community.