The technique used by AMODIA for the Universal Molecular IDentification (UMID) is able to measure the actually preferred metabolic pathway of methanogenesis in the digester (hydrogenotrophic or acetoclastic) of a commercial biogas plant.
Within the project over 72 commercial biogas plants were monitored for a year.
The diversity of microorganisms in the investigated biogas plants is very high. So “the single indicative organism” was not found.
In some biogas plants the composition of methanogenic archaea changed during monitoring interval without notice of the operators. This offers possibilities to optimise the microbiology in existing biogas plants.
During this project no biogas plants under surveillance had an incident. So unfortunately the expected changes in microbiology could not be investigated.