Characterization of extracellular polymeric substances and microbial diversity in anaerobic co-digestion reactor treated sewage sludge with fat, oil, grease

Performance of co-digesters, treated of sewage sludge (SS) with fat, oil and grease (FOG), were conducted semi-continuously in two mesophilic reactors over 180 days. Compared with SS mono-digestion, biogas production and TS removal efficiency of co-digestion were significantly enhanced up to 35% and 26% by adding upper limit FOG (60% on VS). Enhancement in co-digestion performance was also stimulated by the release of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), which was increased 40% in both loosely bound EPS (LB-EPS) and tightly bound EPS (TB-EPS) than that of mono-digester. Based on high-throughput sequencing (HTS), analysis of microbial 16S rRNA gene comprehensively revealed the dynamic change of microbial community. Results showed that both bacterial and archaeal undergone an apparent succession with FOG addition, and large amount of consortium like Methanosaeta and N09 were involved in the process. Redundancy analysis showed the acetoclastic genera Methanosaeta distinctly related with biogas production and EPS degradation. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.