Chidambarampadmavathy, Karthigeyan, Obulisamy, Kartik P., and Heimann, Kirsten (2015) Biopolymers made from methane in bioreactors. Engineering in Life Sciences, 15 (7). pp. 689-699.

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Abstract

Methane (CH4) is a potent greenhouse gas (GHG) and mitigation is important to reduce the global warming impacts. In this study, we aimed to convert CH4 to polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB; a biopolymer) by enrichment of methanotrophic consortia in bioreactors. Two different methanotrophic consortia were established form landfill top-cover (landfill biomass [LB]) and compost soils (compost biomass [CB]), through cultivation under CH4:CO2:air (30:10:60) in batch systems. The established cultures were then used as inoculi (0.5 g LB or CB.L-1) in continuous stirred tank reactors aerated with CH4:CO2:air at 0.25 L.min-1. Under stable CSTRs operating conditions, the effect of spiking with 1:1 copper:iron (final concentrations of 5μM) was tested. Methane oxidation capacity (MOC), biomass dry-weight (DWbiomass), PHB and fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) contents were used as effect parameters. A maximum MOC of 481.9±8.9 and 279.6±11.3 mg CH4.g-1 DWbiomass.h-1 was recorded in LB-CSTR and CB-CSTR, respectively, but PHB production was similar for both systems i.e., 37.7 mg.g-1 DWbiomass. Treatment with copper and iron improved PHB production (22.5 % of DWbiomass) in LB-CSTR, but a reduction of 13.6 % was observed in CB-CSTR. The results indicated that CH4 to PHB conversion is feasible using LB-CSTRs and addition of copper and iron is beneficial.

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