@article{OttoAlipoursarbaniTorrentetal.2023, author = {Otto, Pascal and Alipoursarbani, Mozhdeh and Torrent, Daniel and Latorre-P{\´e}rez, Adriel and Paust, Thomas and Albert, Alfred and Abendroth, Christian}, title = {Microbiome characterization after aerobic digestate reactivation of anaerobically digested sewage sludge}, doi = {10.3390/fermentation9050471}, year = {2023}, abstract = {A demonstrator plant of a recently patented process for improved sludge degradation has been implemented on a municipal scale. In a 1500 m3 sewage sludge digester, an intermediary stage with aerobic sewage sludge reactivation was implemented. This oxic activation increased the biogas yield by up to 55\% with a 25\% reduction of the remaining fermentation residue volume. Furthermore, this process allowed an NH4-N removal of over 90\%. Additionally, 16S rRNA gene amplicon high-throughput sequencing of the reactivated digestate showed a reduced number of methane-forming archaea compared to the main digester. Multiple ammonium-oxidizing bacteria were detected. This includes multiple genera belonging to the family Chitinophagaceae (the highest values reached 18.8\% of the DNA sequences) as well as a small amount of the genus Candidatus nitrosoglobus (<0.3\%). In summary, the process described here provides an economically viable method to eliminate nitrogen from sewage sludge while achieving higher biogas yields and fewer potential pathogens in the residuals.}, subject = {Anaerobic digestion; Anaerobic microbiomes; Aerobic sludge activation; 16S rRNA sequencing; Water treatment; Belebtschlammverfahren; Schlammfaulung; Mikroorganismus; G{\"a}rung; Biogas; Stickstoff-Elimination; Anaerobe Verg{\"a}rung; Anaerobe Mikrobiome; Aerobe Schlammaktivierung; 16S-rRNA-Sequenzierung; Wasserversorgung}, language = {en} }