A Breath of Fresh Air

Samir Khanal (Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering) and recent PhD alumnus Duc Nguyen just published a critical review research paper in a very high impact journal, Biotechnology Advances. (How high? Its impact factor is 11.48, so that’s very high indeed.) As its abstract explains, the paper, “A Little Breath of Fresh Air Into an Anaerobic System: How Microaeration Facilitates Anaerobic Digestion Process,” critically examines microaeration-based anerobid digestion (AD) processes through recent understandings of the effect of oxygen on microbial community structure, enzymatic, energetic, physiological, and biochemical aspects of the microbial-mediated process. The study examined syntrophic interactions between hydrolytic, fermentative, sulfate-reducing, syntrophic bacteria and methanogens under microaerobic conditions to reveal putative mechanism and factors that need to be considered when implementing microaeration in AD process. The study was partly funded by the supplemental funding Samir received in 2016.