Treatment of Anaerobic Digester Liquids via Membrane Biofilm Reactors: Simultaneous Aerobic Methanotrophy and Nitrogen Removal.

Anaerobic digestion (AD) produces useful biogas and waste streams with high levels of dissolved methane (CH) and ammonium (NH), among other nutrients. Membrane biofilm reactors (MBfRs), which support dissolved methane oxidation in the same reactor as simultaneous nitrification and denitrification (ME-SND), are a potential bubble-less treatment method. Here, we demonstrate ME-SND taking place in single-stage, AD digestate liquid-fed MBfRs, where oxygen (O) and supplemental CH were delivered via pressurized membranes.

RNA Biomarker Trends across Type I and Type II Aerobic Methanotrophs in Response to Methane Oxidation Rates and Transcriptome Response to Short-Term Methane and Oxygen Limitation in Methylomicrobium album BG8.

Methanotrophs, which help regulate atmospheric levels of methane, are active in diverse natural and man-made environments. This range of habitats and the feast-famine cycles seen by many environmental methanotrophs suggest that methanotrophs dynamically mediate rates of methane oxidation. Global methane budgets require ways to account for this variability in time and space.

Methane Monooxygenase Gene Transcripts as Quantitative Biomarkers of Methanotrophic Activity in Methylosinus trichosporium OB3b.

Methanotrophic microorganisms are characterized by their ability to oxidize methane. Globally they have a significant impact on methane emissions by attenuating net methane fluxes to the atmosphere in natural and engineered systems, though the populations are dynamic in their activity level in soils and waters. Methanotrophs oxidize methane using methane monooxygenase (MMO) enzymes, and selected subunit genes of the most common MMOs, specifically and , are used as biomarkers for the presence and abundance of populations of bacterial methanotrophs.