Nitrogen Metabolism during Anaerobic Fermentation of Actual Food Waste under Different pH Conditions

Acidogenic fermentation can convert food waste (FW) into small molecules of acids and alcohols, and the broth can be used as a carbon source of denitrification in wastewater treatment plants. However, the soluble nitrogen-containing substances generated in fermentation influence the quality of the carbon source, and microbial nitrogen transformation under different pH conditions has rarely been reported. In this study, four FW fermentation systems were operated continuously with a focus on nitrogen transformation, and metagenomic and metatranscriptomic analyses were used to reveal the metabolic pathways. The results showed that approximately 70% of nitrogen existed in solid organic matter, and the dissolution of solid proteins was limited at pH 4.0–5.0. The concentration of soluble nitrogen, encompassing both soluble organic nitrogen and ammonium, remained relatively stable across various pH conditions. However, high pH values promoted the conversion of soluble nitrogen-containing substances to ammonium, and its concentration increased by 122%, 180%, 202%, and 267% at pH 4.00, pH 4.27, pH 4.50, and pH 5.00. Lactobacillus played a crucial role in ammonium production via the arginine deiminase pathway at pH 4.0–4.5, and Prevotella was the key contributor with the assistance of glutamate dehydrogenase at pH 5.0. The findings provide insights into organic nitrogen transformation in acidogenic fermentation for optimizing FW treatment processes.