Anaerobic digestion requires a balanced availability of micro-nutrients with ideal growth conditions to reach optimal organic degradation and biogas production. Iron is the most abundant of the essential metals in an anaerobic digester and its mobility has a strong impact on microorganisms through its own bioavailability, but also through its influence on the bioavailability of other metals. Mo...

This study evaluated the effects of sodium on anaerobic biomass from second-stage reactor a two-stage digester. The results indicated that methanogens showed relatively high tolerance 2.4 g Na+ L−1. Microbial community analysis viable Methanomicrobiales was most abundant population by combined propidium monoazide cross-linking quantitative polymerase chain reaction technique. There shift toward...

Analysis of process data makes it possible to obtain useful information of processes or phenomena that are analytically difficult to deal with. To demonstrate the possibilities of this kind of approach, an analysis of the faults that occurred in a continuous digester is presented. The process data are fed to an artificial neural network, the Self-Organizing Map (SOM), which is used to form visu...

A thermophilic Methanosarcina strain was isolated from a digester fed with water hyacinths and inoculated with ground termites from the Congo. Optimal growth temperature was 55 degrees C. Methane production was at its optimum between pH 6.5 and 7.0. The bacterium grew on acetate, methanol and methylamines in the absence of growth factors, but could not use H2-CO2 or formate. H2-CO2 inhibited ac...