Project Overview

The proposed project builds on the knowledge acquired on single-carbon bioconversion strategies developed to date and adapts it to muti-feedstock co-conversion for the production of biomaterials.

Methane is a greenhouse gas (GHG) and a common byproduct of the energy, agriculture and waste treatment industries, among others. On the other hand, crude glycerol is a common, low-value byproduct of biodiesel synthesis. It represents as much as 10% of the mass of biodiesel produced and, as a result, its production surpasses demand. Low quality sources of these compounds are considered as waste, but they can represent valuable resources for bioconversion. For this project,  co-conversion of methane and glycerol by a methanotrophic bacterium and co-feeding strategies will be developed to drive the production of biopolymers in bioreactors.

The simultaneous consumption of both substrates represents one of the central innovations of this project.