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Agricultural Waste Remediation And H2 Production By Hyperthermophilic Heterotrophs: Bioinformatics, Taxonomy, And Physiology, Sarah A. Hensley

Doctoral Dissertations

In the United States, nearly 35 million tons of food waste are delivered to landfills and wastewater treatment plants for disposal each year. This places a burden on landfills and the environment through the introduction of foreign chemicals. Utilizing hyperthermophilic heterotrophs for waste treatment in a consolidated bioprocess could potentially remediate these organics, increase reaction rates, kill pathogens, produce a bioenergy product (H₂), and lower costs relative to mesophilic waste treatment options. However, it is unknown how various agricultural waste streams will affect hyperthermophilic growth and metabolite production. We investigated Thermococcales species for this purpose. Specifically, we chose …