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Microbial Community of the Acidogenic Fermentation of Urban Waste: Effect of the Hydrodynamic Cavitation Pre-treatment

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Abstract

Purpose

This study aims at understanding how the acidogenic fermentation microbial community was impacted by the hydrodynamic cavitation (HC) pre-treatment of the substrates’ mixture, constituted by waste-activated sludge and vegetable waste 1:1 on a TVS basis.

Methods

HC was performed with power = 8 kW, P = 1.4–1.5 bar, Qmixture of 25–30 L/min, 1550–1650 rpm, duration: 30 min. Fermentation tests were conducted on cavitated (CAV) and not cavitated (NCAV) mixture at T = 37 °C inside 4 L reactors in batch mode, then switched to semi-continuous with an OLR of 8 kgTVS m−3 d−1. Microbial community was characterized by 16S rRNA sequencing at the beginning and end of the pseudo-steady-state. Ecological diversity and clustering among the samples were determined by beta diversity, Venn diagram, and non-metric multi-dimensional scaling (NMDS) analysis.

Results

Cavitation was efficient in substrates’ hydrolyzation but resulted in a lower microbial diversity of 3.85 (Shannon Index) and VFAs concentration of 12.9 gCODVFA L−1 in the anaerobically fermented cavitated mixture (AF-CAV), respect to 4.54 and 18.2 gCODVFA L−1 in the anaerobically fermented not cavitated mixture (AF-NCAV), respectively. NMDS analysis showed that AF-CAV and AF-NCAV samples formed two different clusters, with VFAs concentration as the only significant factor explaining their difference (R2 = 1, Pr > r = 0.04167). Functional redundancy among community members probably allowed to maintain a stable VFAs composition despite the microbial community variation observed at the end of the test.

Conclusion

The insights here provided on the effects of HC confirm the fundamental role played by microbial community in acidogenic fermentation processes and underline its importance in evaluating the effect of substrates’ pre-treatment.

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Data Availability

All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article.

Abbreviations

HC:

Hydrodynamic cavitation

HRT:

Hydraulic retention time

OLR:

Organic loading rate

TS:

Total solids

TVS:

Total volatile solids

UC:

Ultrasound cavitation

VFAs:

Volatile fatty acids

WAS:

Waste-activated sludge

NMDS:

Non-metric multi-dimensional scaling

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Acknowledgements

The Green Propulsion Laboratory of Veritas S.p.A. is gratefully acknowledged for its hospitality.

Funding

This work was supported by the project “Ecopolimeri” (ID 10217222) in the frame of the POR-FESR 2014–2020 program of Regione Veneto.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali, Informatica e Statistica, Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, 30174, Venice, Italy

    Alice Lanfranchi, Bessem Chouaia & Cristina Cavinato

  2. INRAE, Univ Montpellier, LBE, Narbonne, France

    Alice Lanfranchi

  3. Green Propulsion Laboratory, Veritas S.p.a., 30175, Fusina, VE, Italy

    Graziano Tassinato

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  1. Alice Lanfranchi
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  2. Bessem Chouaia
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Contributions

AL: Investigation, Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing—original draft. BC: Formal analysis, Writing—review and editing. GT: Resources, Funding acquisition. CC: Supervision, Conceptualization, Resources, Writing—review and editing.

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Correspondence to Alice Lanfranchi.

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Lanfranchi, A., Chouaia, B., Tassinato, G. et al. Microbial Community of the Acidogenic Fermentation of Urban Waste: Effect of the Hydrodynamic Cavitation Pre-treatment. Waste Biomass Valor 15, 1629–1639 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12649-023-02196-3

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