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

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

77 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Methane, with a global warming potential twenty five times higher than that of CO 2 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 4 -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 4 biorefinery approach.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)128-135
Number of pages8
JournalCurrent Opinion in Biotechnology
Volume50
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2018
Externally publishedYes

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