title: Microbial community structure in a thermophilic aerobic digester used as a sludge pretreatment process for the mesophilic anaerobic digestion and the enhancement of methane production.
abstract: An effective two-stage sewage sludge digestion process, consisting of thermophilic aerobic digestion (TAD) followed by mesophilic anaerobic digestion (MAD), was developed for efficient sludge reduction and methane production. Using TAD as a biological pretreatment, the total volatile suspended solid reduction (VSSR) and methane production rate (MPR) in the MAD reactor were significantly improved. According to denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) analysis, the results indicated that the dominant bacteria species such as Ureibacillus thermophiles and Bacterium thermus in TAD were major routes for enhancing soluble organic matter. TAD pretreatment using a relatively short SRT of 1 day showed highly increased soluble organic products and positively affected an increment of bacteria populations which performed interrelated microbial metabolisms with methanogenic species in the MAD; consequently, a quantitative real-time PCR indicated greatly increased Methanosarcinales (acetate-utilizing methanogens) in the MAD, resulting in enhanced methane production.
authors: School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, Kyeongbuk, Republic of Korea.
authors: Hyun Min
authors: HM
authors: Jang
authors: Sang Kyu
authors: SK
authors: Park
authors: Jeong Hyub
authors: JH
authors: Ha
authors: Jong Moon
authors: JM
authors: Park
mesh_terms: D056449:Bacillales / Q000378:metabolism; D001421:Bacteria, Anaerobic / Q000378:metabolism*; D019149:Bioreactors / Q000382:microbiology*; D002852:Chromatography, Ion Exchange; D058645:Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis; D008697:Methane / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D019640:Methanosarcinales / Q000378:metabolism; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012722:Sewage / Q000382:microbiology*; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D012722:Sewage; D008697:Methane
keywords: Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE); Mesophilic anaerobic digestion (MAD); Methane production; Real-time PCR; Thermophilic aerobic digestion (TAD)