Líffræðifélag Íslands - biologia.is
Líffræðiráðstefnan 2017
Erindi/veggspjald / Talk/poster V20
Höfundar / Authors: Cyril Lemaire, Guðný Inga Ófeigsdóttir, Snædís Björnsdóttir, Sigurður Brynjólfsson
Starfsvettvangur / Affiliations: Háskóli Íslands
Kynnir / Presenter: Cyril Lemaire
Geothermal gas is widely used in Iceland for the production of electricity. Power plants release this gas as waste into the atmosphere after harvesting heat. The gas components are mainly CO2, H2 and H2S. Due to environmental regulations, the large quantities of H2S previously emitted by the Hellisheiði power plant are now separated from the gas with a water scrubber. Thus, the current exhaust gas is predominantly a mixture of H2 and CO2 with low quantities of H2S. This composition makes the gas an ideal natural resource for the production of biofuels and chemicals using fermentation technology. Acetogenic bacteria such as Clostridium ljungdahlii are known to grow on H2 and CO2 while producing acetate and ethanol via the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway. Depending on the conditions, some strains can produce other more complex multi carbon compounds. In this study, acetogenic bacteria isolated from areas around power plants will be examined for their capacity to convert gaseous waste into cost effective and sustainable commodity chemicals. For that, two experimental phases are required. First, microbes will be sampled in the Hengill area. A laboratory scale batch bioreactor will be used to enrich samples on a ""model gas"" to select interesting microbes and their ideal operational conditions. These results will be used to implement a fully equipped bioreactor at the power plant. Hence, we will be able to test the influence of variations in the natural gas on bioconversion efficiencies.