Syntrophy between fermentative and purple phototrophic bacteria to treat and valorize carbohydrate-rich wastewaters

Fermentative chemoorganoheterotrophic bacteria (FCB) and purple photoorganoheterotrophic bacteria (PPB) are two interesting microbial guilds to process carbohydrate-rich wastewaters. Their metabolic interactions have been studied in pure cultures or co-cultures, but little is known about mixed cultures. We studied the effect of reactor...

A novel mechanistic modelling approach for microbial selection dynamics: Towards improved design and control of raceway reactors for purple bacteria

Purple phototrophic bacteria (PPB) show an underexplored potential for resource recovery from wastewater. Raceway reactors offer a more affordable full-scale solution on wastewater and enable useful additional aerobic processes. Current mathematical models of PPB systems provide useful mechanistic insights, but do not represent the full...

Light intensity defines growth and photopigment content of a mixed culture of purple phototrophic bacteria

Purple bacteria (PPB), anoxygenic photoorganoheterotrophic organisms with a hyper-versatile metabolism and high biomass yields over substrate, are promising candidates for the recovery of nutrient resources from wastewater. Infrared light is a pivotal parameter to control and design PPB-based resource recovery. However, the effects of light...

Enrichment and Aggregation of Purple Non-sulfur Bacteria in a Mixed-Culture Sequencing-Batch Photobioreactor for Biological Nutrient Removal From Wastewater

Mixed-culture biotechnologies are widely used to capture nutrients from wastewater. Purple non-sulfur bacteria (PNSB), a guild of anoxygenic photomixotrophic organisms, rise interest for their ability to directly assimilate nutrients in the biomass. One challenge targets the aggregation and accumulation of PNSB biomass to separate it from the...