Flexigas symposium 20130415 hanzehogeschool - gert hofstede
1. Parameters of biogas production:
the microbial connection
Gert J.H.Hofstede, Expertise Centre ALIFE, Institute for Life Sciences and Technology,
HanzeUniversity of Applied Sciences, Groningen, the Netherlands
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3. Parameters of biogas production: the microbial connection
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Dr. Ir. Jan Peter Nap
(lector)
Dr. Folkert Faber
(senior lecturer)
Brian Wouterse
(trainee)
4. Parameters of biogas production:
the microbial connection
In the Netherlands:
About ~180 biogas installations.
In these installations manure and residual
materials are (co-)digested.
0,5 billion (=109) m3 biogas is produced
Green electricity can be generated.
Current situation:
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5. Parameters of biogas production:
the microbial connection
Current situation:
Relatively limited knowledge on the complex
community of microorganisms
The economy of biogas plants does not allow
failure (cleaning and restarting)
Fairly conservative enterprise
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6. Parameters of biogas production:
the microbial connection
Why this research ?
The use of defined digestate of microorganisms
targeted towards the feedstock might speed up
biogas production.
Opening the microbial black box is supposed to
increase biogas yield and the overall process
efficiency.
The overall objective of this research is to describe
the microbial community that participates in the AD
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7. Parameters of biogas production:
the microbial connection
Have different biomasses distinct biomethane
potentials?
Are different methanogenic communities,
responsible for biogas production?
Is the methanogenic community influenced by
different environments and different process
parameters?
Research question
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8. Parameters of biogas production: the microbial connection
Experimental tools
Automatic Methane Potential Test System
(AMPTSII) batch
2 Labscale bioreactor (10 l, Infors)
continuous
Molecular techniques (qPCR )
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9. Parameters of biogas production: the
microbial connection
AMPTSII, bioprocescontrol
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10. Parameters of biogas production: the microbial connection
AMPTSII-experiments:
Reproducibility
3 different digestates
2 types of biomass
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11. Parameters of biogas production: the microbial connection
General setup: 15 bottles, 1 type of biomass
(maize), 1 type of digestate (Proces B.V) ,
30 days
Digestate to biomass ratio of 1:1 (based on
% Organic Dry Matter [ODM]) was used.
General set up of
AMPTSII assays
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12. Parameters of biogas production: the microbial connection
Conclusion
The AMPTSII yields reproducible
results, both in terms of total gas
volume and in terms of methane
production
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13. Parameters of biogas production: the microbial connection
Conclusion:
No significant difference between
total biogas productions from
maize by different types of digestates
( Donderen, Lutjegast en Tolbert).
(ANOVA, one-tail, p=0.05).
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14. Parameters of biogas production: the microbial connection
Future-plans:
In future experiments, we will look the
biogas flow-rate with for example
‘biomass adapted digestates’ the
digestate (Proces B.V) was not
adapted to maize.
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16. Parameters of biogas production: the microbial connection
Biogasplants (F1 and F2)
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17. Parameters of biogas production: the microbial connection
The overall objective of this research is to
determine the relative changes in microbial
community that participates in the anaerobic
digestion on a Labscale Infors bioreactor
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18. Parameters of biogas production: the
microbial connection
Methanogens, the biological generators of methane
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19. Parameters of biogas production: the microbial connection
FastRNA® SPIN KIT for SOIL
Total DNA and RNA isolation
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20. Parameters of biogas production: the microbial connection
Primer combinations used in this study
for monitoring the population
dynamics of methanogens in biogas
plants
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21. Parameters of biogas production: the microbial connection
This study revealed the limitation of the qPCR
due to the primers. in silico by the RDP-site
Experimental circumstances probably
influence the ‘reference’ Archaea population
Conclusion/discussion
Commonly used primers in literature should
be reconsidered in the light of expanding data
in RDP
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22. Parameters of biogas production: the microbial connection
Since available primers may not be applicable
to all samples,there is a requirement to design
more primers to ensure adequate coverage
and amplification of methanogens.
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Conclusion/discussion
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Therefore, we also look to at another
approach: mRNA of (key-) enzymes that play a
role in the methanogenesis :
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Together with Marina Gil Lopez from the
Universitat de Barcelona we did the first
experiments on RNA
24. Parameters of biogas production: the microbial connection
Identification of Enzymes Involved in synthesis
of biogas
The challenge is to find (key-)enzymes that
can be linked to (specific methanogenic)
micro-organisms.
as key enzymes can be linked to micro-
organisms, relative amounts of micro organisms
can be calculated.
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The future for me? I will end up with a
bucket full of digestate (or micro-
organisms) optimized for every biomass.
That is applied science in my opinion
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