We are adding biochar to anaerobic digesters and often see an increase in CH4 production. One hypothesis is that the microbes utilise the labile carbon pool (correlated with volatile matter) as carbon and energy source. In order to investigate that, we are preparing carbonised material from cellulose and lignin at different temperatures. We expect that the labile carbon content in carbonised biomass decreases with temperature.
In order to compare the labile carbon content of the material before, during and after anaerobic digestion we need to remove the attached microorganisms (biofilm) without affecting the material. From my biofilm days I know and used physical methods (scraping and swabbing) to remove the biofilm from various materials but do not have experience with powder-like carbonised material. I found a paper from Anne K Camper ( Article Evaluation of procedures to desorb bacteria from granular ac...
) in which physical (homogenization, blending, sonication), chemical (surfactant, chelators, salts) and enzymatic (trypsin, pepsin, amylase, protease, carboxyl esterase and papain) methods were tested to remove bacteria from granulated activated carbon. The best method without causing injury to bacteria was found to be homogenization at 16000 rpm (4°C) with a solution of Tris buffer, Zwittergent 3-12, EGTA, and peptone.However, the effect of these methods on the carbon surface was not investigated.
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