Microbial communities in Anaerobic Digestion at different temperature regimes: Mesophilic and Thermophilic

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is described as a series of biological processes where microorganisms break down to biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen. There are three temperature regimes which the microbe bacteria can inhibit at psychrophilic (<25°C) low, mesophilic (25°C - 40°C) moderate, and thermophilic (50°C - 60°C) warm environments. This study will focus only on the mesophilic and thermophilic regimes where it is the most likely we find methane production. The conversion process of organic matter to biogas (methane) during AD is most effective when a consortium of microbial activity mineralizes organic matter. Degradation of organic material is a crucial and often limiting factor of AD and the role of diverse microorganism populations responsible need to be analyzed. This discussion will focus on the reactions at each phase and which microbes are present during the conversion process. Anaerobic digestion acquires different limiting factors under mesophilic or thermophilic temperature regime. The reaction rates during each phase transformation and their temperature regimes are analyzed in terms of thermodynamic energy transfer.