Open AccessBiomethanol Production from Methane by Immobilized Co-cultures of Methanotrophs
Author(s) -
Sanjay K.S. Patel,
Rahul Gupta,
Virendra Kumar,
Sanath Kondaveeti,
Anurag Kumar,
Devashish Das,
Vipin Chandra Kalia,
Jung-Kul Lee
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
indian journal of microbiology/indian journal of microbiology (print)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.523
H-Index - 46
eISSN - 0973-7715
pISSN - 0046-8991
DOI - 10.1007/s12088-020-00883-6
Subject(s) - methanol , bioprocess , yield (engineering) , chemistry , polyvinyl alcohol , methane , chromatography , nuclear chemistry , chemical engineering , materials science , organic chemistry , engineering , metallurgy
Methanol production by co-culture of methanotrophs Methylocystis bryophila and Methyloferula stellata was examined from methane, a greenhouse gas. Co-culture exhibited higher methanol yield of 4.72 mM at optimum ratio of M. bryophila and M. stellata (3:2) compared to individual cultures. The immobilized co-culture within polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) showed relative efficiency of 90.1% for methanol production at polymer concentration of 10% (v/v). The immobilized co-culture cells within PVA resulted in higher bioprocess stability over free cells at different pH, and temperatures. Free and encapsulated co-cultures showed maximum methanol production of 4.81 and 5.37 mM under optimum conditions, respectively. After five cycles of reusage under batch conditions, free and encapsulated co-cultures retained methanol production efficiency of 23.8 and 61.9%, respectively. The present investigation successfully revealed the useful influence of co-culture on the methanol production over pure culture. Further, encapsulation within the polymeric matrix proved to be a better approach for the enhanced stability of the bioprocess.