Resource recovery from the anaerobic digestion of food waste is underpinned by cross-kingdom microbial activities
Abstract
As the human population grows on the planet so does the generation of waste and particularly that of food waste. In order to tackle the world sustainability crisis, efforts to recover products from waste are critical. Here, we anaerobically recovered volatile fatty acids (VFAs) from food waste and analysed the microbial populations underpinning the process. An increased contribution of fungi relative to bacteria was observed throughout the reactor operation, with both kingdoms implicated into the main three steps of anaerobic digestion occurring within our systems: hydrolysis, acidogenesis and acetogenesis. Overall, Ascomycota, Proteobacteria and Firmicutes were found to drive the anaerobic digestion of food waste, with butyrate as the most abundant VFA likely produced by Clostridium using lactate as a precursor. Taken together we demonstrate that the generation of products of added-value from food waste results from cross-kingdoms microbial activities implicating fungi and bacteria.
Citation
Nzeteu , C , Joyce , A , Thorn , C , McDonnell , K , Shirran , S , O'Flaherty , V & Abram , F 2021 , ' Resource recovery from the anaerobic digestion of food waste is underpinned by cross-kingdom microbial activities ' , Bioresource Technology Reports , vol. 16 , 100847 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biteb.2021.100847
Publication
Bioresource Technology Reports
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
2589-014XType
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license.
Description
This work was supported by the Earth and Natural Sciences (ENS) Doctoral Studies Programme, funded by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) of Ireland through the Programme for Research at Third Level Institutions, Cycle 5 (PRTLI-5), co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).Collections
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