[Psychrophilic methanogens and their application in anaerobic wastewater treatment]

Psychrophiic methanogens play a very important role in global carbon cycle, and attract more and more research interests. The application of psychrophilic methanogens in anaerobic biotreatment process could essentially break through the bottle-neck of anaerobic technology at lower temperature, greatly extend the application fields of anaerobic technology, and reduce the operational cost of wastewater treatment. In this paper, the research progress on psychrophilic methanogens was reviewed, with the focus on their culture, isolation, physiological and biochemical characters, molecular biological characters, and cold-adapted mechanisms. The application prospects of psychrophilic methanogens in low-temperature anaerobic bio-treatment technology were also analyzed.