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US 9,040,267 B2Granted
Polyhydroxyalkanoate production method
AssigneeNewlight Technologies, LLC
InventorMarkus Herrema
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Provided are processes for the production and high efficiency processing of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) from carbon sources comprising carbon-containing gases or materials.
Claims15
A method for enhancing polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) generation in a methanotrophic culture, the method comprising:
- (a) contacting a culture of methanotrophic microorganisms with a medium comprising copper, one or more additional nutrients, and a carbon-containing gas that can be metabolized by said culture;
- (b) incubating said culture in said medium to cause growth of said culture;
- and
- (c) inducing a selection pressure in said culture to cause said culture to generate PHA by:
- (i) reducing the concentration of copper in said medium to enable production of soluble methane monooxygenase (sMMO) in species of methanotrophic microorganisms capable of producing sMMO and particulate methane monooxygenase (pMMO) in species of methanotrophic microorganisms capable of producing pMMO;
- (ii) reducing the concentration of said one or more nutrient in said medium to cause said culture to generate PHA from said carbon-containing gas,
- (iii) returning the culture resulting from step c (ii) to the growth conditions of step (b);
- and
- (iv) repeating steps (i), (ii) and (iii) at least two times, to generate a culture of microorganisms that metabolize said carbon-containing gas to produce PHA.
6 more elements
A method for enhancing particulate methane monooxygenase (pMMO)-based polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) production comprising
- (a) contacting a culture of methanotrophic microorganisms with a medium comprising copper and nitrogen;
- (b) incubating said culture in said medium to cause growth of said culture and contacting said culture with a carbon-containing gas that can be metabolized by said culture;
- and
- (c) transforming said culture into a culture that generates PHA by:
- (i) reducing the concentration of copper in said medium to enable production of soluble methane monooxygenase (sMMO) in species of methanotrophic microorganisms capable of producing sMMO and particulate methane monooxygenase (pMMO) in species of methanotrophic microorganisms capable of producing pMMO,
- (ii) reducing the concentration of nitrogen in said medium to cause said culture to generate PHA from said carbon-containing gas,
- (iii) returning the culture to the growth conditions of step (b);
- and
- (iv) repeating steps (i), (ii) and (iii) at least two times, wherein said repetitions selectively favor growth of microorganisms that metabolize said carbon-containing gas.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.