Gagik Badalians Gholikandi, PhD and Hamed Rasouli Sadabad (Editors)
Shahid Beheshti University, A.C., Tehran, Iran

Series: Biochemistry Research Trends
BISAC: SCI007000

Methanogenesis or biomethamation is a very impressive phenomenon which has noticeable effects on both natural and engineered environments. This process is held by methanogens, which produce methane as the major end product of their metabolism in a unique energy-generating process. The organisms received much attention because they catalyze the terminal step in the anaerobic breakdown of organic matter under sulfate-limiting conditions and are essential for both the recycling of carbon compounds and the maintenance of the global carbon flux on Earth. Furthermore, methane is an important greenhouse gas that directly contributes to climate changes and global warming. Hence, the understanding of the biochemical processes leading to methane formation is of major interest.

This book focuses on the methanogenesis processes in natural and engineered environments with emphasis on mechanism recognition, modeling and resource management as well as its ecological impacts. The aim of this book is to examine methanogenesis from different points of view, describing scientific methods to minimize its hazardous impacts, providing an assessment of the existing technologies, and highlighting various aspects of bio-fuel production and cogeneration in seven chapters which have been prepared by authors from completely different professional areas and majors.

In the first chapter, a brief review to methanogenesis biochemistry and the sources of methane (natural and engineered) as well as its impacts on the environment has been described. The second chapter discusses about nonbacterial methanogenesis mechanisms and its significance. The third chapter describes the methanogenesis process in a novel engineered environment. The modeling of methanogenesis by numerical methods and software has been proposed in the fourth and fifth chapters. Chapter six discusses the methanogenesis in anaerobic treatment processes and digesters and the affecting parameters. Finally Methanogenesis by bio-electrochemical processes and techniques for bio-energy generation has been discussed in the seventh chapter.
The main goal of this book is to gather different updated viewpoints on methanogenesis from diverse scientific and technological areas in order to create a useful knowledge source for students, researchers and engineers in this regard. (Imprint: Nova)