Objective
The aim of this project is to investigate the properties of methanogenic microbial communities developing and operating at low temperatures (below 20°C) and to define the limiting factors of this process. The knowledge obtained will be applied for the assessment of the ability of polluted natural and man-made ecosystems to self-remediate and for the development of efficient psychrophilic and/or mesophilic processes to treat organic wastes.
Two types of low temperature environments will be studied, natural environments such as lake sediments and tundra wetlands, and man-made environments such as anaerobic reactors and sludge deposits. With laboratory experiments physiological and metabolic properties of the psychrophilic communities of the different environments as well as their species diversity will be determined. Of special interest is the determination of the limiting factors of psychrophilic methanogenesis. In addition, the potential to degrade organic pollutants will be studied. Methanogenic microbial communities which are able to degrade organic matter at low temperatures will be enriched and from theses enrichments psychrophilic anaerobic microorganisms will be isolated. With laboratory reactors, the start-up and performance of psychrophilic reactor systems will be investigated. Immobilization of the active biomass in these reactors is another issue of investigation. In all systems kinetics will be determined and the rates obtained will be used to develop and optimize a model.
Expected results include the elucidation of the bottlenecks of psychrophilic methanogenic degradation, the prove that psychrophilic methanogenic communities exist and that psychrophilic treatment of organic waste could be a possible alternative under certain conditions. The model developed and adjusted during this project will allow to better design treatment processes and to predict methane emission rates from cold environments and in situ degradation rates of organic pollutants.
Topic(s)
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6047 Kastanienbaum
Switzerland