Biogas has the potential to contribute to some of the most urgent issues of the energy transition, including mobility, energy storage, and grid stability. Flexibilization has been discussed as a means to improve the economics of biogas production, ideally restricting the production of electricity to times of strong need. Here the possibility of demand-driven, flexible biogas production is investigated, which saves substrates and storage capacity, while still enabling control over the production of electricity. Effects of different flexible feeding regimes were tested in a continuously operated 200 L reactor. After a period of 300 days under steady conditions (6.4 kg feed m⁻³d⁻¹), varying flexible feeding patterns were applied over the next 700 days on top of a basic feed load of approximately 1.3 kg m⁻³d⁻¹. Biogas production, volatile organic acid concentrations, and microbial dynamics were documented. Reduction of feeding resulted in reducing the gas production by up to 80% within a day. By increasing the feed, gas production could rapidly be reinitiated at similar levels as before even after fasting periods of up to 22 days. CH₄-contents of the produced biogas were nearly constant over the investigation period. As a response to the flexible feeding, a reorganization of the microbial community was observed, which came to an end after 800 days and then was no longer affected by further changes in the feeding patterns or the substrate composition. Dominating archaea were of the order Methanosarcinales. During the experiment, representatives from the class Methanosaetaceae replaced representatives from the class Methanosarcinaceae.

沼气有可能有助于解决能源转型中一些最紧迫的问题，包括移动性、能量存储和电网稳定性。灵活性已被讨论作为提高沼气生产经济性的一种手段，理想情况下将电力生产限制在需求强烈的时期。在这里，研究了需求驱动、灵活的沼气生产的可能性，这可以节省基质和存储容量，同时仍然能够控制电力生产。在连续运行的 200 L 反应器中测试了不同灵活进料方案的效果。在稳定条件下（6.4 kg 饲料 m ^-3 d ^-1)，在接下来的 700 天内，在大约 1.3 kg m ^-3 d ^-1的基本饲料负荷之上应用了不同的灵活饲养模式。记录了沼气生产、挥发性有机酸浓度和微生物动态。减少进料导致一天内气体产量减少多达 80%。通过增加饲料，即使在长达 22 天的禁食期之后，产气量也可以迅速恢复到与以前相似的水平。通道₄- 在调查期间产生的沼气的含量几乎保持不变。作为对灵活饲喂的反应，观察到微生物群落的重组，这种重组在 800 天后结束，然后不再受到饲喂模式或基质组成进一步变化的影响。占主导地位的古菌属于甲烷八叠球菌目。在实验过程中，甲烷菌科的代表代替了甲烷八叠球菌科的代表。