Microbial Community of Biogas Plant Feeding with Complex Substrate: Archaea/Bacteria Ratio Dynamics by the Stages of Fermentation

Abstract

The technology of anaerobic fermentation of organic substrates and especially of organic wastes with rich microbiota needs effective method to observe the microbial community on the different stages of substrate transformation, including its digestion, fermentation and conversion of its products to methane. The fast and cheap method based on taxon-specific RT PCR is developed to assess density of Archaea and Bacteria population in complex microbial communities. The data obtained on the samples from the industrial biogas plant on the different technological stages are consistent with processes that should evolve during fermentation.