MDG News and Updates

The Wisconsin-based Bacillus manufacturing and R&D company is eager to be part of a conference that provides a forum for academic and industrial scientists to discuss the latest developments in fermentation technology.

  Part of what is driving Microbial Discovery Group’s (MDG) current expansion is our desire to produce 50+ strains. Why do we want to be a Bacillus company that produces 50+ strains? Essentially, to offer the best service and products for our customers. Below are the three main reasons why our drive to produce 50+ strains is fueling our expansion. MDG’s belief in multi-strain product offerings The current Bacillus strain renaissance Competitive advantage MDG’s belief in multi-strain product offerings At MDG, we like adding multiple strains to our products. With the vast array of strains in our library, it is difficult to only put one or two of them in our wastewater, bioremediation, janitorial, sanitation, or landfill products. We like making 6-7 strain products, with each strain being complementary to the other rather than copies of one another. We do this to ensure the success of our products. For example, when these strains hit a wastewater lagoon, who knows what substrates, temperatures, oxygen, and pH conditions they will find. You must be prepared with a broad and complementary team of strains. Because of this, we need the ability to grow a lot of different strains. The expansion was necessary to ensure our ability to […]

At MDG, we continue to discover all the possibilities to treat wastewater with Bacillus. Through years of research and development, we’ve found that bioaugmentation is the answer for wastewater treatment. Bioaugmentation is the process of adding scientifically selected organisms to a microbial community to enhance that community. The term bioaugmentation is often used to describe biological processes in wastewater treatment when using Bacillus products. We work directly with distributors in the wastewater treatment market to deliver ready-to-use solutions on a global scale.     Why are bioaugmentation products used? Not every species and strain of bacteria are good at everything. Bioaugmentation products are used when you want to improve an aspect of an environment biologically (i.e., eliminate foul odors, digest wastewater sludge, etc.). While the existing community of bacteria are good at certain things, when we introduce specific strains that are better than others, we can make the entire population more efficient. For example, in wastewater treatment, while the existing community may be good at breaking down specific substrates, the addition of Bacillus increases the ability to break down compounds with enzymes. This process allows the whole community to digest more efficiently.  Bacillus has been shown to significantly reduce fats, oils, grease (FOG), sludge, odors, carbon oxygen […]

Summer is the height of tourist season and cities become flooded with people who are eager to dine out. As a cleaning product manufacturer, you play a vital role in providing solutions for maintaining restaurant fats, oils, and grease (FOG) By utilizing our Bacillus-based cleaning ingredients, manufacturers can create effective products that can help manage FOG in restaurant grease traps. During this busy time, when FOG accumulation is high, it’s important to ensure proper maintenance of grease traps to help control the chances of blockages, backups, and sewage overflows. The Bacillus breaks down and digests existing and accumulating FOG to help control potential issues. What Happens When Grease Traps Are Not Maintained: During busy times, food prep and dishwashing duties send food scraps down the garbage disposal and drain. This disposal causes grease traps and sewer pipes to fill with FOG quickly. As the FOG solidifies in the sewer pipes, it causes blockages that lead to backups and sewage overflows. When FOG build-up is not properly maintained, unpleasant odors and even greater challenges can arise. The EPA estimates about half of all the 400,000 annual sewer blockages in the United States are caused by grease, and the grease contributes to many of […]

Keeping customers through effective biological solutions. I remember as a child, a sign at the dentist’s office that said “You don’t have to floss all your teeth, just the one’s you want to keep”. It reminds me of the biological business. In today’s economy, every once in awhile we will temporarily lose a client. Alas, the allure of a “Bacillus” product that is 10 or even 15% cheaper. We wish them well and hope someday they will be back. Quite often they are, once they lose a few customers. They tell me their sad stories of how saving 10% on a raw material caused them to lose some of their best customers. In the long run, the 10% savings cost them 100 fold. We smile and welcome them back with open arms and remind them how important sustainable and residual business is to their bottom line. You see in this business you get what you pay for. There are commodity products and performance products. Based on our DNA testing of competitive products, the lower priced commodity products frequently have fewer strains and a less effective range of substrate digestion, enzyme production and lower activity at various ranges of pH and […]

What’s all the fascination with domination? I have heard a lot of folks lately trying to dominate wastewater with our microbes. I would say I have had at least 5 questions about it this month alone. We even had a customer whose customer tried to plate their waste and was very concerned to find that we were not predominating in the system. Hopefully everyone understands it is not our goal to dominate a wastewater system with our microbes, because it would work extremely poor if it did. Rather, our goal is to be a contributing part of the microbial community, with unique specialized traits. Bioaugmentation means to enhance, complement, supplement, or basically help. We are there to fill holes. We want to help the natural flora do what it can’t do on its own. But we can’t do this if we try to dominate the system. Even if we did, it wouldn’t be cost effective and it would throw the system balance off considerably. Imbalance means problems, usually in the form of filamentous. I recently found this thesis where a student was using pyrosequencing to study wastewater: Pyrosequencing using 16s primers, is a DNA technique that allows you to study and identify […]

One of the hardest things to do in this business is to tell a customer that the great liquid product idea they are so excited about is at least 3-6 months away from commercialization. Nothing deflates them faster and I don’t enjoy sharing the news, but it has to be done. Hate me now, love me later when your product doesn’t explode or implode on the shelf. You see, any new liquid product formulation needs to go through stabilization studies to insure a long-term shelf life. The surfactants or other ingredients in the formulation are food sources for contaminating bacteria like Pseudomonas which are common blending facility contaminates. I have seen my competitors test it for a week and some a month (with varying results), but I fear we want to hold on for 3-6 months before we are comfortable with commercialization. I’ve seen bacterial issues show themselves after 2 months, and I’ve seen preservative systems weaken at 6 months, allowing for mold growth. Bacterial growth is very unsightly, causes odors and can lead to gas production but the biggest concerns are recalls and a damaged reputation. The mold concerns aren’t as bad, usually creating hairy mold in the product, but it […]