Ammonia stress on a resilient mesophilic anaerobic inoculum: Methane production, microbial community, and putative metabolic pathways

C.H. Buhlmann, Bede Mickan, Sasha Jenkins, Stephan Tait, T.K.A Kahandawala, P.A. Bahri

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

45 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Short term inhibition tests, 16S rRNA tag sequencing and Phylogenetic Investigation of Communities by Reconstruction of Unobserved States (PICRUSt), were employed to visualise the effects of increasing total ammoniacal nitrogen (TAN) concentration (3400–10166 ppm TAN) on microbial community structure and metabolic pathways for acetate degradation. The rate of methane production on acetate was significantly reduced by TAN concentrations above 6133 ppm; however, methane continued to be produced, even at 10166 ppm TAN (0.026 ± 0.0003 gCOD.gVS−1 inoculum.day−1). Hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis with syntrophic acetate oxidation (SAO) was identified as the dominant pathway for methane production. A shift towards SAO pathways at higher TAN concentrations and a decrease in the number of ‘gene hits’ for key genes in specific methanogenesis pathways was observed. Overall, the results highlighted potential for inhibition activity testing to be used together with PICRUSt, to estimate changes in microbial metabolism and to better understand microbial resilience in industrial AD facilities. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)70-77
Number of pages8
JournalBioresource Technology
Volume275
Early online date7 Dec 2018
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2019

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