Diversity of a mesophilic lignocellulolytic microbial consortium which is useful for enhancement of biogas production

A mesophilic lignocellulolytic microbial consortium BYND-5, established by successive subcultivation, was applied to enhance the biogas production. The degradation efficiency of BYND-5 for rice straw was more than 49.0 +/- 1.8% after 7 days of cultivation at 30 degrees C. Various organic compounds, including acetic acid, propionic acid, butyric acid and glycerin were detected during biodegradation. The diversity analysis of BYND-5 was conducted by ARDRA (Amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analysis) of the 16S rDNA clone library. Results indicated that bacterial groups represented in the clone library were the Firmicutes (5.96%), the Bacteroidetes (40.0%), Deferribacteres (8.94%), Proteobacteria (16.17%), Lentisphaerae (2.13%), Fibrobacteraceae (1.7%), and uncultured bacterium (25.1%). Additionally, the enhancement of biogas yield and methane content was directly related to the pretreatment with BYND-5. The microbial community identified herein is potential candidate consortium for the degradation of waste lignocellulose and enhancement of biogas production under the mesophilic temperature conditions. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.