“My work involved taking the first steps toward developing an inoculant capable of improving the degradation of fat and its derivatives in dairy industry effluents,” explains Angeline Saadoun, who holds a bachelor’s degree in biotechnology and led the study.
A starter culture is a collection of microorganisms capable of breaking down fat or fat derivatives and converting them into products that can be used for other purposes or that are non-polluting.
He conducted the study in partnership with a Uruguayan dairy company, which currently uses an anaerobic reactor to treat its wastewater. This type of technology, which relies on sludge containing a community of microorganisms that break down the material entering the reactor, requires less energy and has the added benefit of producing biogas.
“The idea for the project arose from previous findings by my advisor and her team, who studied the microbial community present in sludge extracted from the company’s grease trap,” explains Saadoun. “These findings revealed that certain microorganisms were present in fairly high concentrations. That caught their attention. They then decided to delve deeper into the subject.”
It is common for fat-degrading microorganisms to become less effective over time, which is why it is important to monitor them to prevent any problems they might cause for the company and the environment. Saadoun’s work involved adapting the microorganisms already present in the reactor to make them more effective at breaking down fats.
During the study, Saadoun succeeded in enriching the mud sample under investigation with bacteria that appear to break down glycerol or oleic acid and convert them into gas, among other products that have not yet been identified.
“This work was just a small part of what it should be,” he explains. “But the idea is that, if continued, this could be of great use to the dairy industry in treating wastewater, since fat is one of the main components of wastewater and is very difficult to treat.”