Microbial community dynamics in upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor

Anaerobic sediment from Logan Lagoons has unique ability to degrade algal biomass. Sediment is comprised of hydrolytic and methanogenic bacterial communities with distinct metabolic preferences. These metabolic preferences result in specific microbial dynamics during the process of anaerobic digestion and biogas production in a laboratory scale upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor, where each group of anaerobic microorganisms is responsible for a particular stage of digestion of algal biomass. Project is aimed at identification and characterization of microbial consortia in anaerobic sediments and monitoring of the microbial dynamics associated with the anaerobic digestion. Specific methods that are utilized include sequencing of a highly conserved 16S rRNA gene region in microorganisms and molecular characterization via fluorescent in situ hybridization. As a result, we should be able to observe a dynamic pattern of microbial growth regarding the stage of the anaerobic digestion - hydrolysis, acidogenesis, acetogenesis and methanogenesis. Obtained results will provide a roadmap for subsequent growing and isolation of microorganisms of interest to enhance anaerobic digestion and production of biogas from not only algal biomass, but also from various organic wastes, such as pig manure and brewery wastewater