The microbial community structure in industrial biogas plants influences the degradation rate of straw and cellulose in batch tests.

The degradation rate of cellulose and straw varied in the batch tests dependent on the origin of the inoculum and was negatively correlated with the ammonia level. The cellulose-degrading community, targeted by analysis of the glycoside hydrolase families 5 (cel5) and 48 (cel48), showed a dominance of bacteria belonging the Firmicutes and Bacteriodetes, and a positive correlation was found between the cellulose degradation rate of wheat straw with the level of C. cellulolyticum.