Aerobic Type II Methanotrophic Bacteria as a Biotechnological Platform for the Bioconversion of Methane to Succinic Acid

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In response to political and public pressure to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, petroleum derived chemicals are increasingly substituted by more sustainable products. For instance, succinic acid is emerging as a competitive new generation bio-based building blocks in green chemistry to make a broad range of home products including adhesives and biodegradable plastics. Bioamber Inc. uses renewable feedstock such as non-food biomass and industrial waste to produce bio-based succinic acid through fermentation. Being the main component of natural gas (typically 90% v/v) and constituting 50% biogas generated in landfill, methane (CH4) is considered as the next generation carbon feedstock. To avail on such opportunity and combine beneficial greenhouse gas emission abatement with substitution of petroleum in the production of chemicals, the R&D team of the company is interested to explore the bioconversion of CH4 into succinic acid. In this project, aerobic bacteria using CH4 as sole energy and carbon sources will be tested for their ability to tolerate and grow in the presence of succinic acid. Selected bacteria available in public culture collections and new enrichment cultures will be tested. Succinic acid tolerant, fast-growing isolates reaching high cell density will be of special interest for downstream metabolic engineering efforts, leading to large-scale industrial applications. The proof of concept of this research project, if successful, will contribute to develop new green chemistry applications reducing our greenhouse gas emissions thus contributing to enhanced sustainability and transitioning, as well, towards a clean CH4-based biotechnology applicable worldwide.