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Microbial Methane Production—Theoretical Aspects^{1 , 2,}

University of Illinois, Urbana 61801

Abstract

The methane fermentation involves bacteria which obtain energy for growth by catabolizing anaerobically degradable organic matter to the end-products CO₂ and CH₄. Three metabolic groups of bacteria are involved. Fermentative bacteria hydrolyze materials such as lipids, protein, and polysaccharides and ferment most products with excretion of acetate and other saturated fatty acids, CO₂ and H₂ as major endproducts. A second group of mainly unknown species, the H₂-producing acetogenic bacteria, produce acetate and H₂ from end-products of the first group. The methanogenic bacteria catabolize the endproducts, mainly acetate, CO₂ and H₂ produced jointly by the other two groups, to the terminal products. Reasons for the importance of the maintenance of a very low H₂ concentration in the ecosystem by the methanogens for the efficient regulation of product formation such as maintaining low propionate and other reduced product formation and high acetate and H₂ formation by the fermentative bacteria and its necessity for catabolism of fatty and probably aromatic acids to acetate and H₂ are discussed. The stoichiometry, kinetics of growth and environmental factors affecting the efficiency of the fermentation are briefly discussed.

¹ Paper presented as part of the Symposium on Alternatives in Animal Waste Utilization at Annual Meeting of the American Society of Animal Science, University of Wisconsin, Madison, July 23 to 27, 1977.

² It is a pleasure to acknowledge major contributions of Dr. Russell Frobisch, Dr. Ronald Isaacson, Robert Leedle, Dr. Vincent Varel, Dr. James Wohlt and Michael Mclnerney to the recent research reported from the author's laboratory, the excellent technical assistance of Jack Althaus and Roy Charron, and organization of the manuscript and art work by Velma Varel. Research reported was partially supported by U. S. Department of Agriculture grants 35–331 and 35–352, by National Science Foundation grant ENG74-20777, and by the Agricultural Experiment Station of the University of Illinois.

³ Departments of Dairy Science and Microbiology.

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