Methanobacteria

Methanobacteria is a class of archaeans in the kingdom "Euryarchaeota". Several of the classes of the "Euryarchaeota" are methanogens and the Methanobacteria are one of these classes.

== Applications == Methanobacteria can be used in biomass conversion as well as energy production through Anaerobic digestion (AD) process. Microbial community is used in Anaerobic digestion (AD) to convert organic wastes into clean energy by reducing chemical and biological oxygen demand in the wastes. Solid-state anaerobic digestion, which contains six genera of methanogens including Methanobacteria, can ferment rice straw and then produce methane. Since conventional treatment is burning rice straw in field, applying Methanobacteria to waste disposal process can reduce the air pollution caused by straw burning and also alleviate energy shortage problem, especially in rural areas. During biomethanation process, insoluble organic material and higher molecular mass compounds will first be transformed into simple carbon compounds. These break-down products will then be fermented to acetic acid, hydrogen and carbon dioxide. Eventually, the acetic acids can be fermented by different methanogenic archaea to produce methane.