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Development of a highly specific and productive process for n-caproic acid production: applying lessons from methanogenic microbiomes.
- Source :
-
Water science and technology : a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research [Water Sci Technol] 2014; Vol. 69 (1), pp. 62-8. - Publication Year :
- 2014
-
Abstract
- High productivity and specificity in anaerobic digesters arise because complex microbiomes organize into a metabolic cascade to maximize energy recovery and to utilize the advantage that the gaseous end product methane freely bubbles out of the system. These lessons were applied to ascertain whether a reactor microbiome could be shaped to produce a different end product. The liquid product n-caproic acid was chosen, which is a 6-carbon-chain carboxylic acid that is valuable and that has a relatively low maximum solubility concentration for product recovery. Acetoclastic methanogenesis was inhibited by pH control and a route was provided for n-caproic acid extraction by implementing selective, in-line recovery. Next, ethanol was supplemented to promote chain elongation, which is a pathway in which short-chain carboxylic acids are elongated sequentially into medium-chain carboxylic acids with two-carbon units derived from ethanol. The reactor microbiome developed accordingly with the terminal process catalyzed by chain-elongating bacteria. As a result, n-caproic acid production rates increased to levels comparable to anaerobic digestion systems for solid waste treatment.
- Subjects :
- Anaerobiosis
Refuse Disposal methods
Bioreactors microbiology
Caproates metabolism
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 0273-1223
- Volume :
- 69
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Water science and technology : a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 24434969
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.2166/wst.2013.549