Opening a functional genomic window on anaerobic wastewater digestion processes at municipal scales

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Anaerobic digestion of wastewater is catalyzed by microbial community metabolism resulting in the**conversion of solid and dissolved wastes into potentially useful products including methane (CH4), also known**as biogas, a high-value and renewable energy and material resource. Commercial-scale anaerobic digesters,**unfortunately, suffer from low conversion efficiencies, variability in CH4 yields and solid residues that can be**costly to remove. These limitations confound profitability and arise primarily from limitations in current**capacity to control microbial metabolic fluxes in the digester milieu. Recent advances in high-throughput**sequencing technologies are enabling unprecedented access to the genetic blueprints underlying microbial**metabolism at the individual, population and community levels in wastewater treatment ecosystems. Initial**investigations have identified direct links between physical and chemical parameters including loading rates,**substrate types, residence times, temperature, and metal concentrations, and microbial community structure and**function. However, effective management and optimization strategies require time-resolved insight into the**relationships between operating parameters, performance metrics, and microbial community metabolism. In**partnership with Metro Vancouver, we will develop this insight through time-series analysis of the anaerobic**digester and solids contact tank at the Lulu Island wastewater treatment plant in Richmond, BC using**high-throughput sequencing approaches. Resulting multi-omic (DNA and RNA) data sets will be used to**profile microbial community structure and activity, and model metabolic potential. This information will be**combined with operating parameters and performance metrics to promote process configurations that increase**CH4 yields with reduced solids. Metro Vancouver is investing over $1 million CAD in a pilot plant as well as**$13 Million CAD into a plant upgrade to feed CH4 from the anaerobic digester into a natural gas distribution**facility. The current project is integral to maximizing return on this investment by providing the data necessary**to model and manipulate underlying microbial interactions driving CH4 production at Lulu Island.