Microbial protein production from sulfide-rich biogas through an enrichment of methane- and sulfur-oxidizing bacteria
Marica Areniello, Silvio Matassa, Giovanni Esposito, Piet N.L. Lens
Abstract
This study evaluated the possibility of combining methane oxidizing bacteria (MOB) with sulfur oxidizing bacteria (SOB) to enable the utilization of sulfide-rich biogas for microbial protein production. For this purpose, a MOB-SOB mixed-culture enriched by feeding both methane and sulfide was benchmarked against an enrichment of solely MOB. Different CH4:O2 ratios, starting pH values, sulfide levels and nitrogen sources were tested and evaluated for the two enrichments. The MOB-SOB culture gave promising results in terms of both biomass yield (up to 0.07 ± 0.01 g VSS/g CH4-COD) and protein content (up to 73 ± 5% of VSS) at 1500 ppm of equivalent H2S. The latter enrichment was able to grow also under acidic pH (5.8–7.0), but as inhibited outside the optimal CH4:O2 ratio of 2:3. The obtained results show the capability of MOB-SOB mixed-cultures to directly upcycle sulfide-rich biogas into microbial protein potentially suited for feed, food or biobased product applications.