Mar 4 2011
Cornell scientists are hoping to use brewery waste to produce liquid biofuels and other useful products. This comes after an insight into the fact that microbes present in bioreactors can effectively produce methane from brewery waste.
Scientists, Jeffrey J. Werner and Largus T. Angenent collaborated with engineers at Anheuser-Busch InBev, who are producers of the Budweiser beer. They also operate 9 local breweries, which use bioreactors to treat wastewater.
From each of the facilities, they collected bioreactor sludge as samples. Using advanced genome sequencing software, over 400,000 microbial gene sequences were analyzed. In their analysis they identified 145 different species of bacteria that were unique to the 9 facilities among the thousand species found. Having established the fact that certain microbial communities were specific to each bioreactor, they identified syntrophs as a bacteria species with stable populations.
The interaction within microbial populations triggers the production of methane gas in the large bioreactor tanks. Understanding the functions of the colonies and creating modifications is a challenge that lies in front of the scientists. Currently, the researchers are focused on making the microbes produce carboxylates, a precursor to alkanes present in fuels, instead of methane.
The study "Bacterial Community Structures Are Unique and Resilient in Full-Scale Bioenergy Systems” was published in the February issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Source: http://www.cornell.edu/