초록
Anaerobic digestion has many advantages over the more conventional aerobic treatment processes such as low levels of excess sludge production, low space (area) requirements, and the production of valuable biogas. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of organic loading rate of anaerobic digestion on thermophilic($55^{\circ}C$) and mesophilic($35^{\circ}C$) conditions. Fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) method was also used to study the microbial community in the reactors. The stabilizing time in mesophilic anaerobic reactors was shorter as approximately 20 days than 40 days in the thermophilic anaerobic reactors. The amount of methane production rate in anaerobic reactors was independent of the concentrations of supplied substrates and the amount of methanogens. When the microbial diversity in the mesophilic and thermophilic reactors, which had been treated with acetate-based artificial wastewater, were compared, it was found that methanogenesis was carried out by microbial consortia consisting of bacteria and archaea such as methanogens. To investigate the activity of bacterial and archaeal populations in all anaerobic reactors, the amount of acetate was measured. Archaea were predominant in all reactors. Interestingly, Methanothrix-like methanogens appeared in mesophilic anaerobic reactors with high feed substrate concentrations, whereas it was not observed in thermophilic anaerobic reactors.
