As important pests, scarab beetle larvae survive on plant biomass and the microbiota of the fermentation chamber play an important role in the digestion of lignocellulose-rich diets. However, the cultivable microbes, especially the anaerobic cultivable microbes, are still largely unknown. Here, both cultivable anaerobic and aerobic bacterial communities associated with the fermentation chamber ...

Clostridium butyricum is a kind of anaerobic bacteria, so de-aeration is extremely important during culture. In this paper, adding sodium thiosulfate and cysteine as well as mixed culture with Saccharomyces cerevisiae were adopted in de-aeration during Clostridium butyricum culture. The experimental results showed that the optimal dosage of sodium thiosulfate was 0.004g/mL, where the biomass of...

High free ammonia released during anaerobic digestion of livestock wastes is widely known to inhibit methanogenic microorganisms and result in low methane production. This was encountered during our earlier thermophilic semi-continuously fed continuously-stirred tank reactor (CSTR) treatment of piggery wastewater. This study explored chemical and biological means to mitigate ammonia inhibition ...

We carry out a thermodynamic analysis to an organism. It is applicable to any type of organism because (1) it is based on a thermodynamic formalism applicable to all open thermodynamic systems and (2) uses a general model to describe the internal structure of the organism--the dynamic energy budget (DEB) model. Our results on the thermodynamics of DEB organisms are the following. (1) Thermodyna...

Background Thermophilic microorganisms and their enzymes offer several advantages for industrial application over their mesophilic counterparts. For example, a hyperthermophilic anaerobe, Caldicellulosiruptor bescii, was recently isolated from hot springs in Kamchatka, Siberia, and shown to have very high cellulolytic activity. Additionally, it is one of a few microorganisms being considered as...

The effects of polyurethane sponge size and type on the performance of an up-flow sponge bioreactor were studied using different sponge cube sizes (1 x 1 x 1 cm, 2 x 2 x 2 cm and 3 x 3 x 3 cm) and types of sponge (S28-30/45R, S28-30/60R, S28-30/80R and S28-30/90R). The reactors were operated under anaerobic conditions in an early stage and an aerobic condition in a latter stage. The results ind...

A novel anaerobic treatment system, the anaerobic migrating blanket reactor (AMBR), was developed after completing a parallel study with upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) and anaerobic sequencing batch reactor (ASBR) processes. Using sucrose as the main component of a synthetic wastewater, the AMBR achieved a maximum chemical oxygen demand (COD) loading rate of 30 g.l .day 1 at a 12-h hydr...

Organic wastes, such as fats, oils, and grease (FOG), are good substrates for biogas production because of their high methane yield potential. FOG are hydrolyzed to glycerol and long-chain fatty acids(LCFA), and the degradation of LCFA takes place through the β-oxidation pathway which has been reported as the rate-limiting step of the whole anaerobic digestion process. This paper reviews the sc...