Biomethanol Production from Methane by Immobilized Co-cultures of Methanotrophs

• Published in: Indian journal of microbiology Vol. 60; no. 3; pp. 318 - 324
• Main Authors: Patel, Sanjay K. S., Gupta, Rahul K., Kumar, Virendra, Kondaveeti, Sanath, Kumar, Anurag, Das, Devashish, Kalia, Vipin Chandra, Lee, Jung-Kul
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New Delhi Springer India 01.09.2020; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Biomedical and Life Sciences; Cell culture; Encapsulation; Greenhouse effect; Greenhouse gases; Life Sciences; Medical Microbiology; Methane; Methanol; Methanotrophic bacteria; Microbiology; Original; Original Research Article; Polymers; Polyvinyl alcohol; Pure culture; Stability; Encapsulation; Co-culture; Greenhouse gas; Methanol production
• ISSN: 0046-8991; 0973-7715
• DOI: 10.1007/s12088-020-00883-6

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.