Anaerobic digestion process for biogas and biomolecules production: microflora identification and characterization

Several agro-industrial processes in Mediterranean countries generate effluents, often containing recalcitrant molecules, which are an environmental problem and have to be disposed. This is the case of olive mill wastewater (OMW). Raw effluent was digested into an up-flow anaerobic hybrid reactor, using the complementary substrate (piggery effluent) concept, to evaluate phenols removal capacity and the microbial consortium composition that occurred during the anaerobic process. OMW valorisation was maximized considering its ability to provide compounds of industrial interest, as phenolic compounds with antiradical activity. The aim of this study was to correlate the phenols profile with diversity of microbiota and to evaluate bacterial and archaeal populations that occurred during the anaerobic digestion process, using temperature gradient gel electrophoresis (TGGE) of PCR amplified 16S rRNA gene fragments.