M.N. ABUBACKER AND G.R. RAO
Abstract
Microbial population studies during methanogenesis were conducted with various plant biomass and sugarcane press-mud waste combinations in lab-scale anaerobic fermentor. The bacterial population in biomass and sugarcane press-mud loded fermentor comprised of a heterogenous group including Eubacterium tortuosum (coliform-fermentative), Clostridium. butyricum (cellulolytic), Selenomonas ruminantium (lipolytic) and Bacteriodes ruminicola (proteolytic), ensuring hydrolytic, acetogenic and homoacetogenic stages of methanogenesis. The presence of Methanobacterium ruminatum, Methanobacterium soehugneii and Methanosarcina barkeri ensured the last phase of methanogenesis by specifically consuming the intermediate products like acetate, butyrate, formate, hydrogen and carbondioxide to produce finally methane, further it was confirmed that the four-stage machanism of methanogenesis. The addition of sugarcane press-mud to biomass significantly contributed to the above bacterial population in the fermentor.