• DOI:10.1007/s10295-018-2023-7
• Corpus ID: 3393869

Potential of biogenic methane for pilot-scale fermentation ex situ with lump anthracite and the changes of methanogenic consortia

@article{Yang2018PotentialOB,
  title={Potential of biogenic methane for pilot-scale fermentation ex situ with lump anthracite and the changes of methanogenic consortia},
  author={Xiu-qing Yang and Yanmei Chen and Ruiwei Wu and Zhiqiang Nie and Zuoying Han and Kaili Tan and Linyong Chen},
  journal={Journal of Industrial Microbiology \& Biotechnology},
  year={2018},
  volume={45},
  pages={229-237}
}

• Xiu-qing Yang, Yanmei Chen, +4 authors Linyong Chen
• Published 20 February 2018
• Chemistry
• Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology

Pilot-scale fermentation is one of the important processes for achieving industrialization of biogenic coalbed methane (CBM), although the mechanism of biogenic CBM remains unknown. In this study, 16 samples of formation water from CBM production wells were collected and enriched for methane production, and the methane content was between 3.1 and 21.4%. The formation water of maximum methane production was used as inoculum source for pilot-scale fermentation. The maximum methane yield of the pilot-scale fermentation with lump anthracite amendment reached 13.66 μmol CH4/mL, suggesting that indigenous microorganisms from formation water degraded coal to produce methane. Illumina high-throughput sequencing analysis revealed that the bacterial and archaeal communities in the formation water sample differed greatly from the methanogic water enrichment culture. The hydrogenotrophic methanogen Methanocalculus dominated the formation water. Acetoclastic methanogens, from the order Methanosarcinales, dominated coal bioconversion. Thus, the biogenic methanogenic pathway ex situ cannot be simply identified according to methanogenic archaea in the original inoculum. Importantly, this study was the first time to successfully simulate methanogenesis in large-capacity fermentors (160 L) with lump anthracite amendment, and the result was also a realistic case for methane generation in pilot-scale ex situ.