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Updated: Mar 13, 2026

Electrochemically and Bioelectrochemically Induced Ammonium Recovery
Published on: January 22, 2015
Ammonium inhibition through the decoupling of acidification process and methanogenesis in anaerobic digester revealed
Miao Zhang1,2, Qiang Lin1,2, Junpeng Rui1
1Key Laboratory of Environmental and Applied Microbiology, CAS; Environmental Microbiology Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Sichuan, 610041, People's Republic of China.
Objective:
To reveal the shifts of microbial communities along ammonium gradients, and the relationship between microbial community composition and the anaerobic digestion performance using a high throughput sequencing technique.
Results:
Methane production declined with increasing ammonium concentration, and was inhibited above 4 g l-1. The volatile fatty acids, especially acetate, accumulated with elevated ammonium. Prokaryotic populations showed different responses to the ammonium concentration: Clostridium, Tepidimicrobium, Sporanaerobacter, Peptostreptococcus, Sarcina and Peptoniphilus showed good tolerance to ammonium ions. However, Syntrophomonas with poor tolerance to ammonium may be inhibited during anaerobic digestion. During methanogenesis, Methanosarcina was the dominant methanogen.
Conclusion:
Excessive ammonium inhibited methane production probably by decoupling the linkage between acidification process and methanogenesis, and finally resulted in different performance in anaerobic digestion.
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