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AssigneeExxon Research & Engineering Co.
InventorsRamesh N. Patel, Ching-Tsang Hou, Allen I. Laskin
Estimating the term…
Disclosed are newly discovered and isolated methylotrophic microorganism strains and their natural and/or artificial mutants which grow well under aerobic conditions in a culture medium in the presence of methane as the major carbon and energy source. The methane-grown microbial cells possess a high content of protein and can be utilized as such as feedstuffs. The methane-grown microbial cells or enzyme preparations thereof are also useful in converting C.sub.1 -C.sub.6 alkanes to alcohols, particularly methane to methanol, C.sub.3 -C.sub.6 alkanes to the corresponding C.sub.3 -C.sub.6 sec. alcohols and methyl ketones, C.sub.3 -C.sub.6 sec. alcohols to the corresponding methyl ketones, cyclic hydrocarbons to cyclic hydrocarbyl alcohols (e.g., cyclohexane to cyclohexanol) C.sub.2 -C.sub.4 alkenes selected from the group consisting of ethylene, propylene, butene-1 and butadiene to 1,2-epoxides, styrene to styrene oxide, and converting other oxidizable substrates to oxidized products. The newly discovered and isolated methylotrophic microorganism strains may be aerobically grown on a plurality of methyl-radical donating carbon-containing compounds, such as methanol, methylamine, methyl formate, methyl carbonate, dimethyl ether, etc., to produce microbial cells or enzyme preparations capable of aerobically converting C.sub.3 -C.sub.6 linear secondary alcohols to the corresponding methyl ketones.
A process for the production of microbial cells which comprises culturing, under aerobic conditions, in a liquid growth medium comprising assimilable sources of nitrogen and essential mineral salts and a C.sub.1 compound as a source of assimilable carbon, a C.sub.1 -utilizing microorganism strain or mutant thereof selected from the group consisting of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.