What are the true temperature limits for the anaerobic treatment of domestic wastewater?

对碳中性或碳负性生活污水处理的需求促使人们重新审视在环境温度下使用厌氧系统处理生活污水。这可以使用传统的产甲烷或产电系统（微生物燃料电池）来实现。然而，温度是这种系统的致命弱点。低温可能会阻碍或停止甲烷的产生或所有系统中必须发生的初始水解和发酵。然而，这种系统在温度方面的真正限制仍然没有很好地理解。迄今为止，最好的环境工程研究似乎已经成功地驯化了嗜温生物。没有理由相信这代表了厌氧消化的真正极限。从我们自己的北极实地考察和文献中获得的初步证据表明，在低至5摄氏度的温度下可能会达到足够的速率。我们希望通过比较在各种温度下接种冷适应和非冷适应生物的反应器的性能来确定用于处理生活污水的厌氧系统的真正限制。我们将确定是否有一个独特的嗜冷社区，通过使用新的和经典的方法来识别，分离和鉴定这些社区中的关键官能团的代表。假定的冷适应社区将受到挑战，以了解他们在温暖的条件下的稳健性。我们将探讨冷适应度的设计含义，并与我们的研究和实践同行进行交流。

The need for carbon neutral or carbon negative domestic wastewater treatment is prompting a re-examination of the use of anaerobic systems to treat domestic wastewater at ambient temperatures. This might be achieved using traditional methanogenic or electrogenic systems (microbial fuel cells). However, temperature is the Achilles heel of such systems. Low temperatures may impede or stop both the production of methane or the initial hydrolysis and fermentation that must take place in all systems. However the true limits of such systems with respect to temperature are still not well understood. The best environmental engineering research to date appears to have succeeded in acclimatising mesophilic organisms. There is no reason to believe that this represents the true limits of anaerobic digestion. Preliminary evidence from our own arctic fieldwork and the literature suggests that adequate rates may be achievable at temperatures as low as 5oC. We wish to determine the true limits of anaerobic systems for the treatment of domestic wastewater by comparing the performance of reactors seeded with cold adapted and non-cold adapted organisms at a variety of temperatures. We will determine if there is a distinct psychrophilic community by using both novel and classical methods to identify, isolate and characterise representatives of the key functional groups in these communities. The putative cold adapted communities will be challenged to gain insight into their robustness in warmer conditions. The design implications of degree of cold adaption attained will be explored and communicated to our colleagues in research and practice.