Microbial Methane Conversion to Short-Chain Fatty Acids Using Various Electron Acceptors in Membrane Biofilm Reactors

Given our vast methane reserves and the forecasted shortage of crude oil in the not too distant future, the conversion of methane into value-added liquid chemicals or fuels would be beneficial. The generated chemicals or fuels could augment the petroleum-dominated chemical market, and also satisfy the increasing demand for transportation fuels. While methane bioconversion to liquid chemicals has just been reported recently, there is limited understanding of the process. This study aims to clarify the potential electron acceptors that could support the process. Here we operated four membrane biofilm reactors (MBfRs) fed with nitrate, nitrite, oxygen at a relatively low rate, and oxygen at a relatively high rate, respectively, to study if they can support methane bioconversion to short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and the associated microbiological features. All tested electron acceptors facilitated methane bioconversion to SCFAs (ranging from 1.1 to 36.7 mg acetate L^–1 d^–1, or 3.4 to 114.6 mg acetate d^–1 m^–2 of biofilm). The carbon efficiency was estimated to be 7.9 ± 1.4% to 148.5 ± 1.3%, with an efficiency higher than 100%, suggesting the assimilation of other carbon, very likely CO₂, into the products. A low oxygen supply rate of 46.4 ± 2.3 mg O₂ d^–1 m^–2 was found to be the most favorable among all the electron conditions provided according to the SCFAs production rate and also the carbon utilization efficiency. Microbial characterization revealed that completely different communities evolved in the respective reactors, suggesting diverse microbial pathways exist for methane bioconversion into value-added chemicals.