Biogas production using the microbial community present in the soil from Deception Island, maritime Antarctica

The current energy crisis is increasing the production of sustainable energy, such as biogas, a fuel generated by the anaerobic digestion of organic waste. The use of oat, an agricultural waste, makes the anaerobic digestion more sustainable. Antarctic microbial communities can utilize a wide range of substrates and adapt to different temperatures. Thus, this study evaluated methane production through an innovative approach, using microbial enrichment, and assessed archaeal diversity through metagenomic techniques in Antarctic soils, Deception Island, Maritime Antarctica. Metagenomic analyses showed low archaeal diversity and abundance. The Euryarchaeota (95.2%) and Methanobrevibacter were the most abundant and frequent phylum and genus, respectively. The average biogas production values ​​were 595 LN kg VS⁻¹ and 561 LN kg VS⁻¹ in tests with individual oat (IO) and oat with enriched mixed culture (O + MC), respectively. However, O + MC showed a higher methane production, 4% (319 LN kg VS⁻¹) more than the results from the IO test with inoculum. Soils from Deception Island may represent a promising source of methanogenic communities capable of producing methane using agricultural waste as an alternative for energy production. Future studies are needed to understand the methane production using soil samples from cold environments.