Scientists from the RAS Institute of Microbiology named after S. Vinogradsky, in cooperation with their European colleagues, have collected microbes capable of producing methane by anaerobic processing in bioreactors. These microorganisms live on the bottom of Central Asian and Altai region lakes. In Germany plans are underway to build an experimental industrial plant designed for this technology thought to become a breakthrough in the development of renewable power engineering. This is the subject dealt with by journalist Alexei Shabelsky on the pages of the electronic edition of Science and Technology of Russia-STRF.ru with reference to a related publication in the American Journal of Biotechnology. Methane-generating microorganisms have been long in the focus of attention of biotechnologists due to the great role they play in the anaerobic (oxygen-free) digestion of industrial and household waste waters. In fact, they generate a biogas from effluents-it can replace the expensive natural gas; in addition, its resources are renewable. Although methane is already produced commercially, it cannot fully replace the gas extracted from industrial wells, as waste household waters contain a very small amount of carbon-rich substances. Therefore, scientists are out to process the biomass thus produced into methane. An international group of authors from Germany (Institute of Genomic Studies and Systemic Biology, Max Planck Institute of Marine Microbiology), the Netherlands (Delft Technological University) and Russia (Laboratory of Ecology and Geochemical Activity of Microorganisms of the RAS Microbiology Institute named after S. Vinogradsky) has been long studying the vital activity of microbes in extreme conditions, in particular, in saturated soda solutions. In these media "protons are a basis of life in neutral conditions which, partially or fully, are replaced by sodium ions",-explained Dmitry Sorokin, Dr. Sc. (Biol.), the project's participant from Rus ... Читать далее