Publikation: Production of polyhydroxybutyrate from industrial flue gas by microbial electrosynthesis

Das Lehrgebiet BioVT ist Co-Autor bei der Veröffentlichung "Production of polyhydroxybutyrate from industrial flue gas by
microbial electrosynthesis" in der Zeitschrift "Journal of CO2 Utilization".

The aim of this work was to produce the biopolymer polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) from industrial flue gas as CO₂ source and electrolysis originating hydrogen via microbial electrosynthesis. Besides the laboratory experiments, the experiments were carried out under industrial conditions directly on-site in a cogeneration plant. We were able to demonstrate that the use of flue gas as a CO₂ source has no detectable negative effect on bacterial growth and PHB production in comparison to a pure gas mixture. In an electrochemical H-cell 333 ± 44 mg L^-1 PHB were obtained, which corresponds to a PHB content of 43 ± 3 % of the cell dry weight. By using flue gas for the production of the biopolymer PHB, not only CO2 emissions are reduced, but also possible environmental pollution from non-biodegradable plastics. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that the production of PHB from flue gas has been demonstrated using Cupriavidus necator.

A. Langsdorf, J.P. Schütz, R. Ulber, M. Stöckl, D. Holtmann; Production of polyhydroxybutyrate from industrial flue gas by microbial electrosynthesis; Journal of CO2 Utilization 83 (2024) 102800; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcou.2024.102800