TY - CHAP

T1 - Environmental Applications of Methanotrophs

AU - Ho Kah Wye, Adrian

AU - Kwon, Miye

AU - Horn, Marcus Andreas

AU - Yoon, Sukhwan

N1 - This work was supported by the C1 Gas Refinery Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), which is funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (grant number: NRF-2015-M3D3A1A01064881) and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (grant number: HO6234/1-1) and the Leibniz Universität Hannover.

PY - 2019/9/6

Y1 - 2019/9/6

N2 - Methanotrophs are microorganisms that are able to utilize methane as the electron donor and carbon source. For long, methanotrophs have been widely studied for their application in environmental biotechnology , due mainly to the exclusive ownership of the unique enzymes that mediate oxidation of methane to methanol , namely the particulate methane monooxygenases (pMMO) and soluble methane monooxygenases (sMMO) . Utilizing these methane monooxygenases , methanotrophs are capable of co-oxidizing a broad range of organic pollutants including chlorinated ethenes . Thus, methanotrophs have long been studied and utilized as biocatalysts for in situ bioremediation of soil and aquatic environments contaminated with these xenobiotic compounds . Due to the growing concerns in anthropogenically induced climate change and global warming , methanotrophs have increasingly gained attention also for greenhouse gas mitigation purposes. Active methane removal using methanotrophic biofilters of diverse configurations have proven to be effective for treatments of gases with relatively high methane concentrations, e.g., landfill gases and animal husbandry tank exhausts. Furthermore, improving the atmospheric methane sink capability of agricultural soils has been one of the foremost foci of climate-smart soil research. This chapter provides an extensive overview of scientific and engineering breakthroughs geared towards practical applications of methanotroph biotechnology in managing impending environmental problems.

AB - Methanotrophs are microorganisms that are able to utilize methane as the electron donor and carbon source. For long, methanotrophs have been widely studied for their application in environmental biotechnology , due mainly to the exclusive ownership of the unique enzymes that mediate oxidation of methane to methanol , namely the particulate methane monooxygenases (pMMO) and soluble methane monooxygenases (sMMO) . Utilizing these methane monooxygenases , methanotrophs are capable of co-oxidizing a broad range of organic pollutants including chlorinated ethenes . Thus, methanotrophs have long been studied and utilized as biocatalysts for in situ bioremediation of soil and aquatic environments contaminated with these xenobiotic compounds . Due to the growing concerns in anthropogenically induced climate change and global warming , methanotrophs have increasingly gained attention also for greenhouse gas mitigation purposes. Active methane removal using methanotrophic biofilters of diverse configurations have proven to be effective for treatments of gases with relatively high methane concentrations, e.g., landfill gases and animal husbandry tank exhausts. Furthermore, improving the atmospheric methane sink capability of agricultural soils has been one of the foremost foci of climate-smart soil research. This chapter provides an extensive overview of scientific and engineering breakthroughs geared towards practical applications of methanotroph biotechnology in managing impending environmental problems.

U2 - 10.1007/978-3-030-23261-0_8

DO - 10.1007/978-3-030-23261-0_8

M3 - Contribution to book/anthology

SN - 9783030232603

T3 - Microbiology Monographs

SP - 231

EP - 255

BT - Methanotrophs

A2 - Lee, Eun Yeol

PB - Springer International Publishing AG

ER -