Anaerobic digester

Figure 2: An anaerobic digester at UC Davis established by Dr. Zhang.[2]

Current anaerobic biodegradation method involving gathering organic wastes such as kitchen wastes into
chambers with controlled environment, allowing anaerobic bacteria to work on the organic wastes, and
collecting the biogas such as methane produced to use as energy. It is a cleaner and more efficient
alternative to aerobic composting, as anaerobic digestion is generally an energy producing process,
whereas composting is mostly energy consuming. In addition, methane produced from composting is
released into environment where methane produced in anaerobic digester is used as fuels.

Methanogenesis or biomethanation is the formation of methane by microbes known

as methanogens. Organisms capable of producing methane have been identified only from
the domain Archaea, a group phylogenetically distinct from both eukaryotes and bacteria, although
many live in close association with anaerobic bacteria. The production of methane is an important
and widespread form of microbial metabolism. In most environments, it is the final step in the
decomposition of biomass.

Examples of methanogens

Methanococcus, Methanobacterium