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On‐line estimation of dissolved methane concentration during methanotrophic fermentations
Author(s) -
Yu Yinghao,
Ramsay Juliana A.,
Ramsay Bruce A.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
biotechnology and bioengineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.136
H-Index - 189
eISSN - 1097-0290
pISSN - 0006-3592
DOI - 10.1002/bit.21050
Subject(s) - methane , bioreactor , chemistry , aqueous solution , methanotroph , anaerobic oxidation of methane , environmental chemistry , aqueous two phase system , phase (matter) , organic chemistry
Knowledge of the aqueous phase methane concentration is critical to understanding and controlling process kinetics in methanotrophic bioreactors. Unfortunately since no dissolved methane probe is commercially available, this data must be obtained off‐line by the time‐consuming gas–liquid partition method. In this study we demonstrate how knowledge of the reactor's k L a for oxygen combined with gas phase methane analysis can be used to continuously estimate the aqueous phase concentration of dissolved methane. The on‐line estimation was verified in two reactor systems with greatly different values of k L a . In both systems the measured and calculated dissolved methane concentrations were in good agreement although dissolved methane was underestimated in both cases. The utility of this methodology was demonstrated by revealing a possible metabolic bottleneck in the model system. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.