Enrichment of Microbial Consortium with Hydrogenotrophic Methanogens for Biological Biogas Upgrade to Biomethane in a Bubble Reactor under Mesophilic Conditions

Apostolos Spyridonidis, Ioanna A. Vasiliadou, Panagiota Stathopoulou, Athanasios Tsiamis, George Tsiamis and Katerina Stamatelatou ()
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Apostolos Spyridonidis: Department of Environmental Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, Vas. Sofias 12, GR-67132 Xanthi, Greece
Ioanna A. Vasiliadou: Department of Environmental Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, Vas. Sofias 12, GR-67132 Xanthi, Greece
Panagiota Stathopoulou: Laboratory of Systems Microbiology and Applied Genomics, Department of Sustainable Agriculture, University of Patras, G. Seferi 2, GR-30131 Agrinio, Greece
Athanasios Tsiamis: Laboratory of Systems Microbiology and Applied Genomics, Department of Sustainable Agriculture, University of Patras, G. Seferi 2, GR-30131 Agrinio, Greece
George Tsiamis: Laboratory of Systems Microbiology and Applied Genomics, Department of Sustainable Agriculture, University of Patras, G. Seferi 2, GR-30131 Agrinio, Greece
Katerina Stamatelatou: Department of Environmental Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, Vas. Sofias 12, GR-67132 Xanthi, Greece

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 21, 1-19

Abstract: The biological upgrading of biogas to simulate natural gas properties contributes to the sustainable establishment of biogas technology. It is an alternative technology to the conventional physicochemical methods applied in biomethane plants and has been studied mainly in thermophilic conditions. Developing an enriched culture for converting the CO 2 of biogas to CH 4 in mesophilic conditions was the subject of the present study, which could facilitate the biological process and establish it in the mesophilic range of temperature. The enrichment took place via successive dilutions in a bubble bioreactor operated in fed-batch mode. The methane percentage was recorded at 95.5 ± 1.2% until the end of the experiment. The methane production rate was 0.28–0.30 L L −1 d −1 following the low hydrogen loading rate (1.2 ± 0.1 L L −1 d −1 ) applied to avoid acetate accumulation. Hydrogenotrophic methanogens, Methanobrevibacter sp., were identified at a proportion of 97.9% among the Archaea and 60% of the total population of the enriched culture. Moreover, homoacetogens ( Sporomusa sp.) and acetate oxidizers ( Proteiniphilum sp.) were also detected, indicating that a possible metabolic pathway for CH 4 production from CO 2 is via homoacetogenesis and syntrophic acetate oxidation, which kept the acetate concentration at a level of 143 ± 13 mg L −1 . It was found that adding NaHCO 3 was adequate to sustain the pH at 8.25.

Keywords: biomethanation; ex situ biogas upgrade; biogas; hydrogenotrophic methanogens; bubble reactor; homoacetogenesis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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