Screening for Methane Productive Microbial Communities

Abstract

The methane production of accumulative cultures of bacterial communities was investigated. The accumulative cultures were isolated from substrates: fermented residue from laboratory reactors, pig manure, poultry manure and sludge from the preliminary setting tank of the waste water treatment station. In the experiment culture method of bacterial communities growing on the liquid mineral medium with adding yeast extract and deoxidizing agent was used. The composition of metabolism gaseous products was analyzed on the chromatograph LHM-8MD. The most productive among accumulative cultures was the culture separated from poultry manure (content of methane was 33.08 vol. %). The samples of accumulative cultures before and after antibiotic processing were microscoped. Methanogenic bacteria of genera Methanosarcina and Methanothrix were identified. Basically, the storage cultures processed by antibiotic produced less of methane than ones before processing.