Polyhydroxyalkanoate production methods and systems for same
AssigneeNewlight Technologies, LLC
InventorsMarkus Donald Herrema, Kenton Kimmel
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Abstract
Several embodiments of the invention relate generally to a system and methods for the treatment of gaseous emissions comprising methane and one or more non-methane compounds that can influence the metabolism of methane-oxidizing microorganisms. In several embodiments, there is provided a system and methods for the treatment of methane emissions through the use of methanotrophic microorganisms to generate functionally consistent and harvestable products. Certain embodiments of the invention are particularly advantageous because they reduce environmentally-destructive methane emissions and produce harvestable end-products.
Claims20
A method for producing a polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) in a culture of methanotrophic microorganisms, the method comprising:
- a) providing a gas comprising methane and one or more non-methane substances;
- b) providing a culture of methanotrophic microorganisms capable of expressing methane monooxygenase (MMO);
- c) providing a microorganism culture medium comprising at least a first essential nutrient and a second essential nutrient, wherein said first essential nutrient is copper, and said second essential nutrient is nitrogen;
- d) exposing said culture to said gas;
- e) manipulating the concentration of said first essential nutrient in said culture medium so that particulate methane monooxygenase (pMMO) expressed by said methanotrophic microorganisms represents greater than 70% of said MMO and soluble methane monooxygenase (sMMO) expressed by said methanotrophic microorganisms represents less than 30% of said MMO;
- and
- f) decreasing the concentration of said second essential nutrient causing said methanotrophic microorganisms to produce said PHA.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.