Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 6, 2026

Author Spotlight: Advancing Anaerobic Microbiota Research Using a Novel Respirometry Protocol
Published on: April 26, 2024
Effects of substrate concentration on methane potential and degradation kinetics in batch anaerobic digestion
Bing Wang1, Sten Strömberg1, Chao Li1
1Department of Biotechnology, Lund University, Getingevägen 60, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden.
Abstract:
In this study, two experiments were conducted to evaluate the impact of substrate concentrations on methane potential and degradation kinetics of substrate. The biochemical methane potential (BMP) tests in Experiment I were performed at a constant inoculum to substrate ratio (ISR), whereas, different ISRs were applied in Experiment II. Results obtained from Experiment I revealed that methane potential of substrate increased at a saturating trend with higher substrate concentrations, and could differ by up to 30% between the lowest and highest investigated concentrations. The results of Experiment II verified the results of Experiment I, and further showed that this trend also occurs when the substrate concentration is regulated with ISRs. In contrast, substrate concentration had no significant impact on the degradation kinetics. It was concluded that dilutions should be avoided when the substrate concentration is lower than 10 g VS/L in order to avoid underestimations of methane potential from BMP test.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Microbes and Methanogenesis
Microbial Bioremediation of Hydrocarbons
Batch vs Continuous Culture
Introduction to Enzyme Kinetics
The experimenter can then plot the initial reaction rate or velocity (Vo) of a given trial against the substrate concentration ([S]) to obtain a graph of the reaction properties. For many enzymatic reactions involving a...
Enzyme Kinetics
Scientists typically study enzyme kinetics with a fixed amount of enzyme in the controlled environment of a test tube. When more reactant, or substrate, is...
Production of Organic Acids

