Using Microbial Ecology Theory to Understand Microbial Community Dynamics and Improve Function of Anaerobic Bioreactors

该项目的目标是了解厌氧消化器中微生物群落成员之间的相互作用，厌氧消化器将食物垃圾转化为有用的甲烷气体，以最大限度地提高性能，并提高反应器处理各种食物垃圾类型的能力。成功的关键是确定执行废气转化的反应堆中的微生物群落是如何在不同的环境条件下组装的。该项目将涉及反应堆实验、分子分析和数学建模的深度整合计划。研究生和本科生，包括来自一所历史悠久的黑人大学的学生，将在这个项目的过程中接受培训。这些成果有可能改变我们对废物转化科学的理解，并使市政当局和废物处理行业受益，因为他们正在寻找将废物转化为能源的现实方法，从而在减少废物产生的同时提高我们的能源效率。直接将微生物群落与生物反应器的功能和环境条件联系起来对生物工艺工程师来说是一个巨大的挑战。这一环节可以通过利用动态条件下微生物群落组装的生态学理论来指导假设驱动的实验设计来完成。该项目的总体目标是阐明厌氧共消化池运行条件、微生物群落和反应器功能之间的关系，并利用这些见解实现更快的过渡、更高的甲烷产率，并开发更具弹性和抗扰动的反应器。具体目标是：1)确定确定性和随机过程在多大程度上有助于在不断变化的条件下形成厌氧共消化器的组装；2)确定不同动态条件下的关键微生物种群、相互作用和共生；3)利用微生物群落组装的见解，提高对不同底物类型和负荷的适应能力和抵抗力，并保持高甲烷产量；以及4)扩大未被充分代表的部门对微生物学和工程研究的参与，并将研究结果的实际影响传播到废水社区。这项研究将把方法论和理论社区组装框架与下一代DNA和RNA测序方法、生物反应器研究和数学模型相结合，以调查和改进工程生物过程。这种综合方法代表了一种研究工程系统中生物过程的新方法，并开辟了一个新的研究领域，将解决关于厌氧共消化的基本问题，并导致更好地了解涉及废物处理、能源生产和资源回收的其他生物过程。该项目将为工程、微生物学和分子生物学领域的研究生和本科生的教育做出贡献，其中包括圣奥古斯丁大学的一名学生，为期两个暑假。该项目将使市政和工业废水处理厂受益，因为它们正在寻找可持续和现实的方式将废物转化为能源。该项目的成果将被纳入废水处理专业人员的微生物研讨会。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The goal of this project is to understand the interplay between members of the microbial community in anaerobic digesters that convert food waste to useful methane gas to maximize performance and increase the ability of the reactors to handle various food waste types. The key to success is determining how the microbial communities in the reactors that perform the waste-to-gas conversion are assembled under different environmental conditions. The project will involve a deeply integrated program of reactor experiments, molecular analysis, and mathematical modeling. Graduate and undergraduate students, including students from a historically black university, will be trained during the course of this project. The results have the potential to transform our understanding of the science of waste conversion, and benefit municipalities and waste treatment industries as they seek realistic ways of converting waste to energy, thus increasing our energy efficiency while simultaneously reducing waste generation. Directly linking microbial communities to bioreactor function and environmental conditions is a great challenge for biological process engineers. This link can be accomplished by using the ecological theory of microbial community assembly under dynamic conditions to guide the design of hypothesis-driven experiments. The overall objective of this project is to elucidate the relationships between anaerobic co-digester operating conditions, microbial communities, and reactor functions, and to use these insights to achieve faster transitions, higher methane yields, and develop reactors that are more resilient and resistant to perturbations. The specific objectives are: 1) To determine to what extent deterministic and stochastic processes contribute to shaping the assembly in anaerobic co-digesters under changing conditions; 2) To determine the key microbial populations, interactions, and co-occurrences under different and dynamic conditions; 3) To use the insights from microbial community assembly to increase resilience and resistance in response to varying substrate types and loadings, and maintain high methane yields; and, 4) To broaden participation of underrepresented sectors in microbiology and engineering research, and to disseminate the practical implications of the findings to the wastewater community. This study will integrate a methodological and theoretical community assembly frameworks with next generation DNA and RNA sequencing approaches, bioreactor studies, and mathematical modeling to investigate and improve an engineered biological process. This integrated approach represents a novel way of investigating biological processes in engineered systems and opens up a new research field that will address basic questions about anaerobic co-digestion and lead to a better understanding of other biological processes involved in waste treatment, energy production, and resource recovery. This project will contribute to the education of graduate and undergraduate students, including one from St. Augustine's University, for two summers in the areas of engineering, microbiology, and molecular biology. This project will benefit municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants as they seek sustainable and realistic ways of converting waste to energy. Results from this project will be incorporated in microbiology workshops for wastewater treatment professionals.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.