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Bioaugmentation And Correlating Anaerobic Digester Microbial Community To Process Function, Kaushik Venkiteshwaran
Bioaugmentation And Correlating Anaerobic Digester Microbial Community To Process Function, Kaushik Venkiteshwaran
Dissertations (1934 -)
This dissertation describes two research projects on anaerobic digestion (AD) that investigated the relationship between microbial community structure and digester function. Both archaeal and bacterial communities were characterized using high-throughput (Illumina) sequencing technology with universal 16S rRNA gene primers. In the first project, bioaugmentation using a methanogenic, aerotolerant propionate enrichment culture was investigated as a possible method to increase digester methane production. Nine anaerobic digesters, seeded with different biomass, were operated identically and their quasi steady state function was compared. Before bioaugmentation, different seed biomass resulted in different quasi steady state function, with digesters clustering into high, medium or low …
Relating Methanogen Community Structure And Function In Anaerobic Digesters, Benjamin T.W. Bocher
Relating Methanogen Community Structure And Function In Anaerobic Digesters, Benjamin T.W. Bocher
Dissertations (1934 -)
A deeper understanding of how microbial community structure relates to process function would help improve anaerobic digester design. This dissertation describes both qualitative and quantitative relationships between anaerobic digester function and microbial community structure. Community structure was characterized using banding pattern intensities from denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) for the mcrA gene of methanogenic Archaea. The first project compared a single-stage continuously mixed stirred tank reactor (CSTR) and staging with an acidogenic CSTR followed by a methanogenic CSTR. After seeding with the same biomass, these unique process configurations exhibited different function and qualitatively different methanogen communities. Compared to a single-stage …