Microbial Communities in Dark Fermentation, Analytical Tools to Elucidate Key Microorganisms and Metabolic Profiles

Hydrogen production from dark fermentation (DF) is a viable option for valorizing organic waste and agro-industrial effluents. Fermentative bacteria carry out this process through complex ecological interactions, like cooperation, syntrophy, and competition. Therefore, understanding such complex microbial dynamics is key in developing the process since performance and stability depend on it. In this sense, studying the DF microbiome helps understand possible interactions, metabolic pathways, and the microorganisms' role. This chapter discusses the need to analyze microbial communities from an ecological perspective and reviews existing tools for their characterization. A review of statistical methods and metabolism modeling are integrated to take advantage of the microbial characterization and elucidate key microorganisms, their interactions, and their correlation to operational parameters, favoring the efficiency of DF.