Characterisation of storage polymers during anaerobic digestion in haloalkaline conditions

Characterisation of storage polymers during anaerobic digestion in haloalkaline conditions

Depaz, Lena (TU Delft Applied Sciences; TU Delft BT/Environmental Biotechnology)

van Loosdrecht, Mark C.M. (mentor)
Kleerebezem, R. (graduation committee)

Delft University of Technology

Life Science and Technology (LST)

2019-06-28

The goal of this experiment has been to characterize storage polymers produced during anaerobic digestion under haloalkaline conditions. The project focused on three research questions: the type of storage polymers produced, which conditions selected for the production of storage polymers and which organisms are responsible for the production of the storage polymers. Based on BODIPY® staining of various batch tests with different conditions, it can be concluded that the produced storage polymer is PHA. The innate fluorescence of the methanogens was used to determine that the methanogens are not the micro-organisms producing and storing the PHA. It is unclear which organisms are
responsible for this. The characterisation and the staining of different digestions and the setup of a new batch test which focused on the influence of trace metals, acetate and toxic compounds were unable to determine the exact conditions which selected for storage polymers. Follow-up research is therefore recommended, for example new digestion series with a new inoculum from the hypersaline soda lakes in Russia instead of the mixture of the sediment from the hypersaline soda lakes and biomass from a previous digestion series. It is also recommended to perform a genomics analysis of the microbial community to find a possible PHA producer.

Anaerobic Digestion
haloalkaline
PHA
storage polymers
Batch experiment

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:4fea301e-fd99-4a49-8c30-832c4f7a960f

Student theses

bachelor thesis

© 2019 Lena Depaz