Hydrolysis and microbial community analyses in two-stage anaerobic digestion of energy crops

Aims: The roles of the diverse populations of micro-organisms responsible for biodegradation of organic matter to form methane and carbon dioxide are rudimentarily understood. To expand the knowledge on links between microbial communities and the rate limiting, hydrolytic stage of two-stage biogas production from energy crops, this study was performed. Methods and Results: The process performance. and microbial communities (as determined by fluorescence in situ hybridization) in two separate two-stage batch digestions of sugar beets and grass/clover were studied. The microbial populations developed in the hydrolytic stage of anaerobic digestion of beets and grass/clover showed very few simi…