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Background: Anaerobic digestion is a biological process in which a consortium of microorganisms transforms a complex substrate into methane and carbon dioxide. A good understanding of the interactions between the populations that form this consortium can contribute to a successful anaerobic digestion of the substrate. In this study we combine the analysis of the biogas production in a laboratory anaerobic digester fed with the microalgae Spirulina, a protein rich substrate, with the analysis of the metagenome of the consortium responsible for digestion, obtained by high-throughput DNA sequencing. The obtained metagenome was also compared with a metagenome from a full scale biogas plant fed with cellulose rich material., Results: The optimal organic loading rate for the anaerobic digestion of Spirulina was determined to be 4.0 g Spirulina L(-1) day(-1) with a specific biogas production of 350 mL biogas g Spirulina (-1) with a methane content of 68 %. Firmicutes dominated the microbial consortium at 38 % abundance followed by Bacteroidetes, Chloroflexi and Thermotogae. Euryarchaeota represented 3.5 % of the total abundance. The most abundant organism (14.9 %) was related to Tissierella, a bacterium known to use proteinaceous substrates for growth. Methanomicrobiales and Methanosarcinales dominated the archaeal community. Compared to the full scale cellulose-fed digesters, Pfam domains related to protein degradation were more frequently detected and Pfam domains related to cellulose degradation were less frequent in our sample., Conclusions: The results presented in this study suggest that Spirulina is a suitable substrate for the production of biogas. The proteinaceous substrate appeared to have a selective impact on the bacterial community that performed anaerobic digestion. A direct influence of the substrate on the selection of specific methanogenic populations was not observed.

A haloalkaline anaerobic microbial community obtained from soda lake sediments was used to inoculate anaerobic reactors for the production of methane rich biogas. The microalga Spirulina was successfully digested by the haloalkaline microbial consortium at alkaline conditions (pH 10, 2.0 M Na(+)). Continuous biogas production was observed and the obtained biogas was rich in methane, up to 96%. Alkaline medium acted as a CO2 scrubber which resulted in low amounts of CO2 and no traces of H2S in the produced biogas. A hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 15 days and 0.25 g Spirulina L(-1) day(-1) organic loading rate (OLR) were identified as the optimal operational parameters. Metagenomic and metatranscriptomic analysis showed that the hydrolysis of the supplied substrate was mainly carried out by Bacteroidetes of the "ML635J-40 aquatic group" while the hydrogenotrophic pathway was the main producer of methane in a methanogenic community dominated by Methanocalculus.

Methanogens are of biotechnological interest because of their importance in biogas production. Here we investigate the suitability of sediments from Central Asian soda lakes as inoculum for high pH methane-producing bioreactors. Methane production in these sediments was modest (up to 2.5 μmol mL sediment), with methanol and hydrogen as the preferred substrates. The responsible methanogenic community was characterized based on mcrA gene sequences. McrA gene sequences so far specific to these habitats indicated the presence of two clusters within the orders Methanobacteriales and Methanomicrobiales, one apparently including representatives of the genus Methanocalculus and another distantly related to the genus Methanobacterium., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)