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Natural Communities of Microalgae and Cyanobacteria from Eutrophicated Waters as Potential Co-substrates for Small-scale Biogas Production

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the biogas potential of biomass produced by microbiotic communities developed under natural conditions in freshwater systems such as ponds incorporated into agricultural landscapes. Natural communities of microalgae were collected from a small eutrophicated pond where dominant species were euglenoids (Lepocinclis species). Cyanobacterial communities dominated by Lyngbya species were taken from a domestic aquarium and cultivated under makeshift conditions. Experiments were done using dairy cow manure (DCM) for codigestion with natural communities of microalgae (MDM) and cyanobacteria (CDM) and conducted during 42 days in thermophilic regime. The total biogas yields were 421.40 and 383.34 mL/g volatile solids (VS), while the average methane contents were 63.97 and 64.06% for MDM and CDM, respectively. Our results indicate that the natural communities of microalgae and cyanobacteria used in this study possess the potential for biogas production, which is, in comparison with particular algal and cyanobacterial strains cultivated under strictly controlled cultivation conditions, more promising. Therefore, this study aims to motivate further investigations into the diverse natural communities of microalgae and cyanobacteria and pretreatments that are environmentally friendly and cost-effective and will eventually enhance small-scale biogas production on agricultural farms.

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Abbreviations

DCM:

Dairy cow manure

MDM:

Microalgae and DCM mixture

CDM:

Cyanobacteria and DCM mixture

TS:

Total solids

VS:

Volatile solids

TOC:

Total organic carbon

TN:

Total extractable nitrogen

GC:

Gas chromatograph

SD:

Standard deviation

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Funding

This work was funded through institutional financial support from the Faculty of Agrobiotechnical Sciences and the Department of Biology, University of Josip Juraj Strossmayer in Osijek, Croatia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Agrobiotechnical Sciences, Osijek, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Vladimira Preloga 1, HR-31000, Osijek, Croatia

    Denis Deže, Đurđica Kovačić, Daria Jovičić & Davor Kralik

  2. Department of Biology, Osijek, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Cara Hadrijana 8/a, HR-31000, Osijek, Croatia

    Melita Mihaljević

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  1. Denis Deže
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  2. Melita Mihaljević
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  3. Đurđica Kovačić
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  4. Daria Jovičić
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  5. Davor Kralik
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Contributions

The concept and design of the study, analysis and interpretation of data, and manuscript writing were done by Deže, D., Mihaljević, M., Kralik, D., and Kovačić, Đ. supported by Jovičić, D. in experiment realization and calculations of the given results.

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Correspondence to Melita Mihaljević.

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Deže, D., Mihaljević, M., Kovačić, Đ. et al. Natural Communities of Microalgae and Cyanobacteria from Eutrophicated Waters as Potential Co-substrates for Small-scale Biogas Production. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 192, 1016–1028 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-020-03382-y

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