Tracking Functional Microbiomes of UK Anaerobic Digesters

This 1 year project, funded by BBSRC and led by Professor Orkun Soyer at the University of Warwick, focuses on furthering our understanding of anaerobic digestion, particularly on how the complex microbial communities affect and are affected by operational conditions. Altogether, 16 UK full scale AD reactors are taking part in the project, where both genetic and meta-data are collected weekly. The large amounts of genetic data will allow us to characterise which species of microbes inhabit the digesters, what their functions are and, importantly, how they change over time. The meta-data will allow us to monitor changes in response to their environment. The datasets will be made available through the project website at http://anaerodynamics.com, funded by the AD Network. These will provide an unbiased and transparent source of information on the performance of industrial AD reactors in real time, which we hope will help to enhance and expand this technology in the UK. Enquiries can be directed to: Prof. Orkun Soyer at Warwick University.