The effect of different substrates and their composition on farm-scale anaerobic digestion

The aim of the project is to study the effect of different, in farm-scale also novel, co-feedstocks on the composition of microbial communities in an anaerobic digester (AD). The aim is to compare the microbial communities during different co-digestion periods and to investigate whether the process contains core microbes that can be related to different feedstocks. Also, the aim is to examine the correlation between AD-process efficiency, stability, core microbes and the feedstock composition.

The project aims to identify the core microbes that predominate the AD with different co-feedstocks. If certain core microbes are identified, the information can be further harnessed to modify microbial populations operating with different feedstocks or to grow optimized microbial inocula. In the future, knowledge of populations will enable better preparation for feedstock changes at biogas plants and thus, to contribute to the decentralized renewable energy production and nutrient recycling.