Comparison of multiple sources of inocula from thermal and saline environments and fermentation derived communities to improve a second generation biofuels platform using the carboxylate process. <p> The purpose of this project is to compare thermal and saline sediment bacterial communities to those arising from fermentations using the carboxylate platform, as part of a biofuels project. Microbial ecology studies have been proposed for some of the sediment communities themselves.