Anaerobic Oxidation of Methane Coupled to the Reduction of Different Sulfur Compounds as Electron Acceptors in Bioreactors

1 General Introduction and Thesis Outline
1.1 General introduction and problem statement
1.2 Objectives and scope of the study
1.3 Thesis outline
1.4 References

2 Physiology and Distribution of Anaerobic Oxidation of Methane (AOM) by Archaeal Methanotrophs
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Microbiology of AOM
2.3 Physiology of ANME
2.4 Drivers for the distribution of ANME in natural habitats
2.5 Ex situ enrichment of ANME
2.6 Approaches for AOM and ANME studies
2.7 Conclusion and outlook
2.8 References

3 Microbial Sulfate Reducing Activities in Anoxic Sediment from Marine Lake Grevelingen
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Material and methods
3.3 Results
3.4 Discussion
3.5 Conclusion
3.6 References

4 Pressure Sensitivity on an ANME-3 Predominant Anaerobic Methane Oxidizing Community from Coastal Marine Grevelingen Sediment
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Material and methods
4.3 Results
4.4 Discussion
4.5 Conclusions
4.6 References

5 Anaerobic Oxidation of Methane Coupled to Thiosulfate Reduction in a Biotrickling Filter
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Material and methods
5.3 Results and discussion
5.4 Conclusions
5.5 References

6 Enrichment of Anaerobic Methanotrophs in Biotrickling Filters using Different Sulfur Compounds as Electron Acceptors
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Material and methods
6.3 Results
6.4 Discussion
6.5 References

7 General Discussion and Future Perspectives
7.1 Introduction
7.2 AOM community steered by pressure and substrates used
7.3 FISH- nanometer scale secondary ion mass spectrometry (FISHNanoSIMS) analysis investigation on AOM-SR and the microorganisms involved
7.4 Future perspectives
7.5 References

Biography

Chiara Cassarini was born in 1987 in Bologna, Italy. She completed her bachelor (BSc) in 2010 in Industrial Chemistry at the University of Bologna (Italy) and obtained her MSc degree in Geochemistry at Utrecht University (the Netherlands). She collaborated closely with the Deltares Company in the Netherlands and with the department of Isotope Biogeochemistry in Leipzig (UFZ) Germany where she used compound-specific stable isotope analysis (CSIA) to investigate the degradation of chlorinated compounds in an industrial contaminated site. Simultaneously, during her MSc studies, she participated in a research cruise on the North Sea to investigate ocean acidification. Chiara got admitted into the Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate Program on Environmental Technologies for Contaminated Solids, Soils and Sediment (ETeCoS³). She started as a PhD fellow at UNESCO-IHE (Delft, the Netherlands) in 2013. Within the framework of her PhD studies, she investigated how various sulfur compounds, as electron acceptors, impact the anaerobic oxidation of methane in packed bed systems.

Chiara has started a Post-Doc in anaerobic biotechnology and process bioengineering at the National University of Ireland Galway, the research is focused on new environmental technologies designed to produce biofuel from waste.