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Paraffin oil as a “methane vector” for rapid and high cell density cultivation of Methylosinus trichosporium OB3b

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Abstract

Slow growth and relatively low cell densities of methanotrophs have limited their uses in industrial applications. In this study, a novel method for rapid cultivation of Methylosinus trichosporium OB3b was studied by adding a water-immiscible organic solvent in the medium. Paraffin oil was the most effective at enhancing cell growth and final cell density. This is at least partially due to the increase of methane gas transfer between gas and medium phases since methane solubility is higher in paraffin than in water/nitrate minimal salt medium. During cultivation with paraffin oil at 5% (v/v) in the medium, M. trichosporium OB3b cells also showed higher concentrations of the intermediary metabolites, such as formic acid and pyruvic acid, and consumed more methane compared with the control. Paraffin as methane vector to improve methanotroph growth was further studied in a 5-L fermentor at three concentrations (i.e., 2.5%, 5%, and 10%). Cell density reached about 14 g dry weight per liter with 5% paraffin, around seven times higher than that of the control (without paraffin). Cells cultivated with paraffin tended to accumulate around the interface between oil droplets and the water phase and could exist in oil phase in the case of 10% (v/v) paraffin. These results indicated that paraffin could enhance methanotroph growth, which is potentially useful in cultivation of methanotrophs in large scale in industry.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Prof. Ichiro Okura of Tokyo Institute of Technology of Japan for donating M. trichosporium OB3b. This work was supported by 863 Plan of Ministry of Science and Technology of China (no. 2006AA02Z203), the National Natural Science foundation of China (no. 2033010), and the PetroChina Foundation (050511-4-4).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Bing Han, Hao Wu, Zhongxuan Gou, Xin-Hui Xing & Hao Jiang

  2. Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science, Beijing, 100081, China

    Tao Su & Xin Li

  3. Department of Biological Sciences, The University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK

    Yin Chen & J. Colin Murrell

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  1. Bing Han
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  2. Tao Su
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  3. Hao Wu
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  4. Zhongxuan Gou
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  5. Xin-Hui Xing
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  8. Xin Li
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  9. J. Colin Murrell
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Correspondence to Xin-Hui Xing.

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Bing Han and Tao Su contributed equally to this work.

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Han, B., Su, T., Wu, H. et al. Paraffin oil as a “methane vector” for rapid and high cell density cultivation of Methylosinus trichosporium OB3b. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 83, 669–677 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-009-1866-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-009-1866-2

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