Real-Time qPCR method to study methanogen communities during wet anaerobic co-digestion of organic wastes

Biogas is a biofuel with a large energy value and is mostly consisting of methane. It is a renewable energy source, as a substitute for natural gas, and is produced by anerobic digestion of various organic materials. Among which there are agricultural residues, waste water sludges and organic urban wastes. In the reactors anaerobic microrganisms can degrade the waste organic matter and its pollutants in two different products: digested sludge and biogas. If the microbial community is optimised the outing digested sludge could be used as a soil fertilizer and the methane production rate could be improved. Methanogen population is liable to the biogas production. We detected the methanogens during a wet digestion process fed by pretreated urban organic wastes and waste water sludges. Applied methodology is a real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) based on mcrA target. We observed a positive and significant correlation between the biogas production rate and the methanogen abundance (r=0.498, p<0.001). Moreover methanogen abundance could be proposed as a diagnostic tool in methane produce optimization.