Microbial Community Analysis Using MiSeq Sequencing and Pathway of Methane Production in Tehran WWTP: A Full-Scale Anaerobic Digester

One of biological wastewater treatment methods that utilizes to both digesting waste activated sludge and methane production is anaerobic digestion (AD). It is believed to be most effective solution in terms of energy crisis and environmental pollution issues.

In this study the sludge was digested anaerobically sampled from a full-scale WWTP, located at south of Tehran, Iran for evaluation. To study the microbial community within the sludge the MiSeq Sequencing method utilized. Based on our field data and microbial community data, a schematic diagram of probable leading pathways was made in the studied digester.

At first, the community variety in the bulk sludge and richness were enhanced followed by loading increasing. Meanwhile, the loading change enhanced the community richness and variety of the sludge. By comparing the rank-abundance distributions, a shallow gradient would show high evenness since the abundances of diverse species are alike. The results showed all the communities were extremely diverse and 15 phyla were distinguished in the sludge sample. The dominant phyla of the community were Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes and quantity of the two phyla were 21% and 11%, respectively. Anaerobaculum, Acinetobacter, Syntrophomonas, and Coprothermobacter were the chief genera for the microbial communities and the sum of four genera were 7%, 3%, 3%, and 2%, respectively.

It was shown that syntrophic acetate oxidizing bacterias (SAOBs) metabolized acetate through hydrogen trophic methanogenesis in the digester. Generally, the findings may be useful to help the wastewater operators to utilize an effective method that able to treat waste sludge plus methane production, simultaneously.