Microbial Profile of the Leachate from Mexico City’s Bordo Poniente Composting Plant: An Inoculum to Digest Organic Waste

• Published in: Energies (Basel) 2019-06, Vol.12 (12), p.2343
• Main Authors: Gállego Bravo, Aixa Kari, Salcedo Serrano, Daniel Alejandro, López Jiménez, Gloria, Nirmalkar, Khemlal, Murugesan, Selvasankar, García-Mena, Jaime, Gutiérrez Castillo, María Eugenia, Tovar Gálvez, Luis Raúl
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acetic acid; Acidogenic bacteria; Bacteria; Bacterial leaching; Biochemical oxygen demand; Biodegradability; Biodegradation; Biogas; Chemical oxygen demand; Composting; Composts; Food waste; high throughput DNA sequencing; Inoculum; Landfill; leachate; Leachates; Medical research; methanogens; microbial diversity; Municipal solid waste; Municipal waste management; Organic chemistry; organic fraction of municipal solid waste; Organic loading; Organic wastes; Propionic acid; Researchers; Solid waste management; Solid wastes; thermophilic anaerobic digestion; Waste management; Waste management industry
• ISSN: 1996-1073; 1996-1073
• DOI: 10.3390/en12122343

In recent years, municipal solid waste (MSW) management has become a complex problem worldwide. Similarly, Mexico City is facing such a situation for the management and treatment of organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW). Therefore, in this work, we investigated whether leachate from the composting plant, Bordo Poniente, located in Mexico City can be used as an inoculum for the treatment of OFMSW using thermophilic anaerobic digestion (AD) with a hydraulic retention time of 30 days. We analyzed the physicochemical properties of the leachate and performed a biochemical methane potential test. Archaeal and bacterial diversity was also identified using high throughput DNA sequencing of 16S rDNA libraries. Methane yield was 0.29 m3 CH4/kg VSadded in the positive control and 0.16 m3 CH4/kg VSadded in the treatment group. The phylum, Bacteroidetes, and genus, Methanosarcina, prevailed in the leachate. However, in thermophilic conditions, the microbial communities changed, and the phylum, Firmicutes, genera, Methanoculleus, and candidate genus, vadinCA11, were dominant in the treatment group. We concluded that the leachate contains a suitable initial charge of many active bacteria and methanogenic archaea which contribute to the AD process, hence it can be used as an inoculum for the treatment of OFMSW.