Biological methane conversion by methanotrophic bacteria

Pei, Sichong

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/117769 Copy

Description

Title

Biological methane conversion by methanotrophic bacteria

Author(s)

Pei, Sichong

Issue Date

2022-11-28

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Rao, Christopher V

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Rao, Christopher V

Committee Member(s)

• Leckband, Deborah E
• Shukla, Diwakar
• Jensen, Paul A

Department of Study

Chemical & Biomolecular Engr

Discipline

Chemical Engineering

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• Methanotroph
• Methane oxidation

Abstract

In this dissertation, research works were presented on exploration of different aspects in biological methane conversion by methanotrophic bacteria using both experimental and computational techniques. First, robustness of methanotroph Methylococcus capsulatus Bath in raw natural gas was examined. Significant amount of hydrogen sulfide may exist in raw natural gas, and studies on its stress response toward toxicity of hydrogen sulfide remains unknown. An extensive investigation on viability of methanotroph in raw natural gas will improve its commercialization progress. Using next-generation sequencing technique and bioinformatic analysis, the transcriptomic change of M. capsulatus Bath toward toxicity of hydrogen sulfide was profiled at molecular level and it revealed unexpected observations. Although the presence of hydrogen sulfide slows the growth of M. capsulatus Bath, sulfide was shown to upregulate sulfide oxidation related enzymes, sulfide quinone reductase and persulfide dioxygenase as well as a novel lanthanide-dependent methanol dehydrogenase. Furthermore, efforts have been made on investigation of a feasible methane bioreactor. An inhouse bench-scale airlift column reactor was designed and constructed where methane conversion performance was studied. At last, the manuscript of an earlier cooperative publication on chemotaxis of Bacillus subtilis was included.

Graduation Semester

2022-12

Type of Resource

Thesis

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2022 Sichong Pei

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