CH4BioVal · Biological Valorization of Methane Emissions

Biological Valorization of Methane Emissions

CH4BioVal has the aim of contributing to the development of a sustainable society by exploring the possibility of using methane as a substrate for the production of high added-value chemicals and commodities. Methane is a green-house gas, which has a global warming potential 80 times that of CO2. More than 70 million tonnes of methane are being released annually into the atmosphere from anthropogenic sources, such as waste water treatment plants, landfills, mines etc. These emissions, on one hand, have a very negative impact on climate by contributing to global warming, secondly, they suppose a waste of energy and carbon, which could be reused for the fabrication of high added value chemicals. Two of these chemicals, which are the focus of this project, are PHB (a biodegradable plastic) and ectoine (an osmoprotector with uses in the food and cosmetic industry). The way to profit from the enormous economic potential of the methane that is being released into the atmosphere worldwide, is to use so-called methanotrophic organisms. Those are bacteria that are able to use methane as a carbon and energy source. Some of these organisms produce naturally valuable chemicals. For example bacteria from the genus Methylocystis produce PHB, and the halo-tolerant bacterium Methylomicrobium alcaliphilum produces ectoine. In order to use methanotrophs as economically sustainable platforms for industrial biotechnology, the perfomance of these organisms has to be improved by increasing the yields of the valuable compounds that they produce naturally, and specially by developing the genetic and bioinformatic tools necessary to expand the currently narrow scope of products that can be produced form methane. A key tool for the achievement of the mentioned goals is the developed of Genome Scale Metabolic Models (GSMMs), which are comprehensive compilations of all the metabolic reactions that take place in a microorganism. These models allow to predict the outcome of genetic manipulations (gene insertions and knockouts), thus allowing the metabolic engineering of the modelled organisms. During the course of this project, GSMMs of 6 of the most relevant species of methanotrophs have been constructed and validated, also work on isolating new species of methanotrophs able to produce PHB and ectoine has been carried out, leading to 5 scientific articles already published and two more currently in the process of being submitted.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз