Improved process resilience by enhanced anaerobic biofilm formation

Natural resources are being depleted at an alarming rate as energy consumption continues to increase rapidly, resulting in a significant rise in greenhouse gas emissions and exacerbating climate change. The world is shifting toward cleaner and more sustainable energy systems that include waste management to address the drawbacks of fossil fuels and meet the Sustainable Development Goal. Anaerobic Digestion (AD) is a promising technology capable of overcoming these challenges. It is a biological process in which various anaerobic microorganisms convert complex organic matter into methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2), along with other trace compounds. However, since most of the energy in the system ends up in the produced methane, the process is understandably prone to disturbance and inhibition.

Leveraging Anaerobic Digestion through Environmental Stress (LeAD) is an innovative and collaborative research project funded by the Marie Skodowska-Curie Doctoral Networks, focusing on improving AD technology. This project aims to tackle key challenges by using advanced microbiological and computational tools to study how syntrophic bacteria and methanogenic archaea interact within AD ecosystems under stress conditions. By understanding these interactions, we aim to develop strategies that enhance the robustness and reliability of AD systems under stress conditions.