Advancing renewable methane production from municipal food waste using applied genomics

厌氧消化（AD）作为一种废物处理技术，以生物气（生物燃料）和营养丰富的肥料（肥料）的形式促进资源回收，在世界范围内引起了越来越大的兴趣。沼气是一种灵活的能源，可以进一步加工用于热电联产，或升级为可再生天然气。如果完全实现，加拿大的反倾销产业可以支持1，800个沼气厂，为加拿大经济带来210亿美元的经济潜力。因此，AD通过将废物转化为高价值资源，在加拿大建立生物循环经济方面发挥着核心作用。虽然AD是一种成熟的技术，但其稳定性可能受到严重抑制，并且当缺乏精确的操作控制和优化时，该过程甚至可能失败。影响AD稳定性和效率的关键因素之一是微生物群落的组成。目前基因组学技术的进步使微生物种群的深入研究成为可能，包括分类组成、基因组组成和基因表达。这些方法具有通过鉴定工艺稳定性和性能的关键微生物驱动因素来改善AD技术控制和监测的巨大潜力。在不列颠哥伦比亚省，Renewi Canada Ltd.每年为萨里市处理115，000吨城市固体废物的有机部分，以此证明AD的价值。这项工作的目标是提供Renewi Canada Ltd.与他们的废物流的子馏分的生物甲烷潜力的全面了解，阐明影响他们的过程中的甲烷生产活动的操作参数，并使用应用基因组学，以确定负责甲烷生产的关键微生物从他们的流入食物垃圾。

There is a growing worldwide interest in anaerobic digestion (AD) as a waste treatment technology to promote resource recovery in the form of biogas (biofuel) and nutrient-rich digestate (fertilizer). Biogas is a flexible energy source that can be further processed for use in combined heat and electricity production, or upgraded into renewable natural gas. If fully realized, the AD industry in Canada could support 1,800 biogas plants with an economic potential of $21 billion in revenue to the Canadian economy. Thus, AD plays a central role in establishing a bio-based circular economy in Canada by converting waste into high value resources. Although AD is an established technology, its stability can be severely inhibited, and the process can even fail when lacking precise operational control and optimization. One of the key factors influencing the stability and efficiency of AD is the composition of the microbial community. Current advancements in genomics technologies now enable the in-depth study of microbial populations, including taxonomic composition, genomic makeup, and gene expression. Such methods have great potential to improve AD technology control and monitoring by identifying key microbial drivers of process stability and performance. Within British Columbia, Renewi Canada Ltd. is demonstrating the value of AD by treating 115,000 tonnes of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste every year for the City of Surrey. The objectives of this work are to provide Renewi Canada Ltd. with a comprehensive understanding of the biological methane potential of the sub-fractions of their waste stream, elucidate operational parameters that influent the methane-production activity of their process, and use applied genomics to identify key microorganisms that are responsible for methane production from their influent food waste.