Investigation of factors influencing biogas production in a large-scale thermophilic municipal biogas plant.

A continuously operated, thermophilic, municipal biogas plant was observed over 26 months (sampling twice per month) in regard to a number of physicochemical parameters and the biogas production. Biogas yields were put in correlation to parameters such as the volatile fatty acid concentration, the pH and the ammonium concentration. When the residing microbiota was classified via analysis of the 16S rRNA genes, most bacterial sequences matched with unidentified or uncultured bacteria from similar habitats.