Anaerobic biofilm enriched with an ammonia tolerant methanogenic consortium to improve wastewater treatment in the fishing industry

The digestion efficiency of liquid industrial wastes increases when using bioreactors colonized by microbial biofilms. High concentrations of proteins derived from the fish processing industry lead to the production of ammonia, which inhibits methane production. Two bioreactors were constructed to compare methanogenic activity: one enriched with mMPA (methylaminotrofic methane production archaea) consortia (control bioreactor), and the second with NH 3 tolerant consortia (treatment bioreactor). Ammonia tolerant activity was assessed by applying an ammonia shock (755 mg NH 3 /L). Methane production, consumption of total organic carbon (TOC) and the taxonomic composition of bacteria and archaea was evaluated using 16S rDNA in the acclimatization, ammonia shock, and recovery phases.The ammonia shock significantly affected both methane production and the consumption of TOC in the control reactor ( p