Biogas from Tannery Solid Waste Anaerobic Digestion Is Driven by the Association of the Bacterial Order Bacteroidales and Archaeal Family Methanosaetaceae.

The search for renewable energies has been one of the biggest challenges of the last decades. Sludge and solid wastes of many sources have been used to produce biogas of high calorific value. Thus, this work aimed to evaluate the biogas production of solid waste originating from a tannery that uses chromium salts as a tanning agent and to characterize the physicochemical parameters and microbial composition of the biogas-producing biomass. Wastes were collected and the parameters were evaluated at the initial and final time points of the anaerobic incubation process. At the end of 150 days, there was a production of 26.1 mL g-1 VSS of biogas with 52% of methane. The highest amount of biomethane observed was related to the archaeal family Methanosaetaceae and bacterial order Bacteroidales. Knowledge about changes in the microbial composition can provide tools for manipulation, isolation, and inoculation of the microorganisms inside the bioreactors to maximize methane production.