Direct measurement of methanogenesis in anaerobic digestors by membrane inlet mass spectrometry

✍ Scribed by Robert I. Scott; T. Norman Williams; Timothy N. Whitmore; David Lloyd

• Book ID: 104788069
• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1983
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 545 KB
• Volume: 18
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1432-0614
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00501515

✦ Synopsis

Membrane inlet mass spectrometry has been used to measure the concentrations of dissolved CH4, H2, CO2, and 0 2 in samples of digestor sludge taken from laboratory scale anaerobic digestors. Addition of low levels of 02 or H 2 to samples of sludge in a reaction vessel closed to the atmosphere caused the concentration of dissolved methane to rise by about 7%, concomitant rapid 02 uptake and H2 utilisation. The apparent K m for H 2 was 8.6 ~tM; the Vmax was 124 ~M. rain -1.

The addition of acetate or glucose to samples in an open reaction vessel resulted in increased methanogenesis but no detectable increase in the concentration of H2. The addition of formate resulted in increases of both H 2 and CH 4 production. Changes previously observed by other workers in gas composition and production on a time scale of hours upon the addition of substrates and inhibitors are no true estimate of the much more rapid changes in rates of production observed in the liquid phase (time scale of minutes).