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The effect of the microalgae-bacteria microbiome on wastewater treatment and biomass production

  • Environmental biotechnology
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Abstract

The use of microalgae for wastewater treatment has been proposed as a cost-effective method to produce biofuels while remediating waste streams. This study examined the microalgae biomass production rate, wastewater treatment efficiency, and prokaryotic organism microbiome associated with microalgae Chlorella sorokiniana cultivated on anaerobic digestate effluent. Final microalgae biomass concentrations from nine photobioreactors were highly variable and had values that ranged between 0.14 g/L and 0.90 g/L. Nutrient removal efficiencies for TN (total nitrogen), N-NH4 (ammonium nitrogen), and COD (chemical oxygen demand) ranged from 34% to 67%, 65% to 97%, and−60% to 14%, respectively. Analysis of individual OTUs (operational taxonomic units) from the microbial community revealed that microalgae biomass concentrations were significantly correlated with the relative abundance of OTUs in the genus Pusillimonas. Predictive metagenomic analyses identified additional correlations associated with biomass production and nutrient removal. These results suggest that the microbial community present during microalgae cultivation on wastewater can impact the performance of the system for biomass production and wastewater treatment.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Dr. Tien-Chieh Hung, Dr. Annalise Franz, Dr. Ruihong Zhang, Dr. Brendan Higgins, Tyler Barzee, Cody Yothers, and Kayla Rude for their assistance with experiments.

Funding

This work was supported by California Energy Commission grant ARV-15-008 and National Science Foundation project #1438211.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, University of California Davis, One Shields Ave., Davis, 95616, USA

    Matthew B. Paddock, Jesús Dionisio Fernández-Bayo & Jean S. VanderGheynst

  2. Department of Food Science and Technology, University of California Davis, One Shields Ave., Davis, CA, 95616, USA

    Jesús Dionisio Fernández-Bayo

  3. Department of Bioengineering, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, 285 Old Westport Rd, North Dartmouth, MA, 02747, USA

    Jean S. VanderGheynst

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  1. Matthew B. Paddock
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Correspondence to Jean S. VanderGheynst.

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Paddock, M.B., Fernández-Bayo, J.D. & VanderGheynst, J.S. The effect of the microalgae-bacteria microbiome on wastewater treatment and biomass production. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 104, 893–905 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-019-10246-x

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