Abstract This study addresses a major gap in the understanding and control of microbially enhanced coal-bed methane (MECBM) production. A mathematical and conceptual model comprises a food-web that includes two types of bacteria and three types of archaea representing substrate-specific members of the community; the microbial community members are potentially interacting by competing for or being inhibited by substrates or products of other microbial community members. The model was calibrated using data sets from two different experimental setups. The calibrated model effectively predicted the methane concentrations within a 7% range of deviation from the experimental results. The results of additional batch experiments using varied conditions are also reproduced in an attempt to validate the model and to test the hypothesis of amendment-induced stimulation of microbial community members capable of converting coal into substrates available to methane producing microbes. This study significantly enhances the understanding of the complex interactions between microbial activity, substrate-specificity and bio-availability of coal for methane production, and provides the basis for including hydraulic flow and transport processes into future mathematical models important for the design and implementation of more sustainable methods of harvesting methane from un-mineable coalbeds.

中文翻译：

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微生物特定底物利用在微生物增强煤层气生产中的重要性：建模研究

摘要 本研究解决了对微生物增强型煤层气 (MECBM) 生产的理解和控制方面的重大空白。一个数学和概念模型包括一个食物网，其中包括两种类型的细菌和三种代表群落特定底物成员的古细菌；微生物群落成员可能通过竞争或被其他微生物群落成员的底物或产物抑制而相互作用。该模型使用来自两个不同实验设置的数据集进行校准。校准模型有效地预测了与实验结果偏差在 7% 范围内的甲烷浓度。还再现了使用不同条件的额外批次实验的结果，以尝试验证模型并测试修正诱导刺激微生物群落成员的假设，这些微生物群落成员能够将煤转化为产甲烷微生物可用的基质。这项研究显着增强了对微生物活性、底物特异性和用于甲烷生产的煤的生物有效性之间复杂相互作用的理解，并为将水力流动和输送过程纳入未来数学模型提供了基础，这些模型对设计和实施更重要的从不可开采的煤层中收集甲烷的可持续方法。