Biogas production Methanogens are then able to use the acetic acid and

produce methane.
Biogas is generated when bacteria degrade biological
material in the absence of oxygen, in a process known as There is also another group of methanogens that convert
anaerobic digestion. carbon dioxide to methane.

Since biogas is a mixture of methane (also known as marsh
gas or natural gas, CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) it is a
renewable fuel produced from waste treatment.
Anaerobic digestion is basically a simple process carried
out in a number of steps by many different bacteria that can
use almost any organic material as a substrate - it occurs in
digestive systems, marshes, rubbish dumps, septic tanks
and the Arctic Tundra.
Humans tend to make the process as complicated as
possible by trying to improve on nature in complex
machines, but a simple approach is still possible.
As a result of these steps biogas is mainly methane
(typically 60%, but less if the digester is not operating
properly and sometimes up to about 80%) and carbon
dioxide with traces of hydrogen sulphide, ammonia, water
vapour, other organic volatiles and possibly some nitrogen
gas.
Being a microbiological process the presence of any toxic
or inhibitory substances will reduce, or possibly end, biogas
production.
Antibiotics are a potential problem, as are some cleaning
chemicals and heavy metals.

One of the advantages of AD is that the process destroys a

Anaerobic Digestion large proportion of pathogens that may be present in the
waste, so reduces the risk of disease transmission.
The process of biogas production involves three stages. The
different organisms involved in each stage are listed below
in the table:

Name of the stage Organisms involved

Facultative anaerobic bacteria

including Cellulomonas, Eubacteria,
1. Solubilization Clostridium, Ruminococcus

Facultative anaerobic acidogenic

bacteria such as Escherichia coli,
2. Acidogenesis Clostridium, Actinomyces,
Corynebacterium

Methanogens i.e. Methane Application

producing anaerobic bacteria
3. Methanogenesis like Methanobacterium,
Methanococcus, Methanosarcina
Anaerobic digestion breaks down readily degradable
organic matter in a series of steps, where the product of one
step becomes the substrate for the next step.
The initial step is usually considered to be hydrolysis
where extra cellular enzymes break complex organic
molecules like fats and starches into simpler molecules like
glucose.
Biogas can be used for electricity production on sewage
works, in a CHP gas engine, where the waste heat from the
engine is conveniently used for heating the digester;
cooking; space heating; water heating; and process heating.
If compressed, it can replace compressed natural gas for
use in vehicles, where it can fuel an internal combustion
engine or fuel cells and is a much more effective displacer
of carbon dioxide than the normal use in on-site CHP
plants.

These simpler molecules are then utilised by acetogenic

bacteria to produce acetic acid, with carbon dioxide as
another product of the breakdown.
Biotransformation

Microorganisms possess the capability to

enzymatically modify a wide range of organic
compounds. Bio-transformations (bi-conversions or
microbial transformations) broadly refer to the
processes in which microorganisms convert organic
compounds into structurally related products. In other
words, biotransformation deals with microbial
(enzymatic) conversion of a substrate into a product
with limited number (one or a few) enzymatic The conversion time required for biotransformation is
reactions. This is in contrast to fermentation which related to the type of reaction, the substrate
involves a large number reaction (often complex in concentration and the microorganism used. In
nature). general, oxidation, hydrolysis and dehydration
reactions are completed in a few hours.
Although there are hundreds of bio-transformations
known, only a selected few of them are useful for the Biocatalysts are based on microbes or isolated
synthesis of commercially important products. The enzymes. A large number of microbes are
significance of bioconversion reactions becomes available from national type culture collections
obvious when the production of a particular like ATCC (USA), DSMZ (Germany), NCIB (UK),
compound is either difficult or costly by chemical JCM (Japan) and others.
methods. Further, bio-transformations are generally
preferred to chemical reactions because of substrate Over 35 000 different reactions catalyzed by
specificity, stereo specificity and mixed reaction
enzymes are described and can be easily
conditions (pH, temperature, and pressure).
screened in databases with respect to
The environmental pollution due to biotransformation substrate, product, productivity, and so on
is almost insignificant or negligible. In addition, it is (www.accelrys.com and
easy to apply recombinant DNA technology to make http://umbbd.ahc.umn.edu/).
desired improvements in bio-transformations.
Another practical advantage of bio-transformations is On the other hand, finding a powerful new
that it is easy to scale-up the processes due to limited
biocatalyst is successful only after parallel
number of reactions. screening of large numbers of strains in
collections or after screening of mostly
Types of Biotransformation Reactions:
Many types of chemical reactions occur in bio- environmental samplesdespite the
transformations. These include oxidation, reduction, impressive number of reactions described in
hydrolysis, condensation, isomerization, formation of
databases.
new CC bonds, synthesis of chiral compounds and
reversal of hydrolytic reactions. Among these,
oxidation, isomerization and hydrolysis reactions are
more commonly observed in bio-transformations.
Many a times bio-transformations involve more than
one type of reaction.