Technologies for the bioconversion of methane into more valuable products.

Sara Cantera, Raúl Muñoz, Raquel Lebrero, Juan Carlos López, Yadira Rodríguez, Pedro Antonio García-Encina

Journal: Current opinion in biotechnology 2019;50():128-135

PMID: 29316497

Full Text on Elsevier Science View on PubMed

Abstract

Methane, with a global warming potential twenty five times higher than that of CO is the second most important greenhouse gas emitted nowadays. Its bioconversion into microbial molecules with a high retail value in the industry offers a potential cost-efficient and environmentally friendly solution for mitigating anthropogenic diluted CH-laden streams. Methane bio-refinery for the production of different compounds such as ectoine, feed proteins, biofuels, bioplastics and polysaccharides, apart from new bioproducts characteristic of methanotrophic bacteria, has been recently tested in discontinuous and continuous bioreactors with promising results. This review constitutes a critical discussion about the state-of-the-art of the potential and research niches of biotechnologies applied in a CH biorefinery approach.

Address: Department of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Technology, Valladolid University, Dr. Mergelina, s/n, Valladolid, Spain.; Department of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Technology, Valladolid University, Dr. Mergelina, s/n, Valladolid, Spain. Electronic address: [email protected].

DOI: 10.1016/j.copbio.2017.12.021

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MeSH Terms: Amino Acids, Diamino, Biofuels, Bioreactors, Biotechnology, Methane, Polysaccharides