This blog post summarizes the opportunities in green energy and products through the use of autotrophic microbes. Known autotrophic microbes offer a few opportunities in wastewater treatment and renewable natural gas (RNG). Thermodynamic analysis suggests three novel classes of novel autotrophic metabolisms. These novel microbes offer multiple opportunities for green energy and products worth billions. A general commercial pathway is provided. Let’s start with the origin of autotrophic microbes for green energy and products.
Western Autotroph Company
The first company I founded was called Western Autotroph Company, which sought to exploit the numerous opportunities described in my patents. Over time, I switched to a much larger opportunity in Blood Oxidative Stress or BLOS. However, the opportunities with autotrophs still remain. Let’s delve into some of the opportunities.
Autotrophic Microbial Metabolisms are Simple
First, let’s review autotrophic microorganism metabolism. Autotrophy means the life form uses carbon dioxide as their carbon source. Typically, autotrophic microbes have a simple catabolism (energy generation reaction). Beyond plants, autotrophic microorganisms can be Archaea or Bacteria. The most famous autotrophic Archaea are the methanogens, which generate methane. There are several autotrophic Bacteria that range from sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB) that generate hydrogen sulfide and others. The table below shows a few examples of known autotrophs with unbalanced catabolic reactions.
Known Autotrophic Microbe Opportunities
Some of my previous patents focused on how to improve biological processes for wastewater treatment through the optimization of CO2 concentration.
Known Autotrophic Microbe Opportunities – Wastewater Treatment
Each of these improvements involve CO2 control in the headspace of an anaerobic digester, anaerobic reactor (Anammox), or aeration basin. For an equipment vendor, these process improvement make existing capital more productive, which delay future expansion for cost savings. They could also optimize and reduce process instability brought about by fluctuating soluble CO2 concentration, which save energy (ex. aeration) or reduce reactor size (Anammox) for cost savings. The optimization of CO2 concentration in the headspace of an anaerobic digester for increasing biogas production has been discussed.
Known Autotrophic Microbe Opportunities – Dechlorination of Contaminated Soil
Beyond wastewater treatment, known autotrophic microbes could be utilized for soil bioremediation and ruminant bioaugmentation. For soil bioremediation, some autotrophic bacteria have the ability to dehalogenate (i.e., remove halogens from organic chemicals). Of this group, there is interest in the dechlorinating autotrophs for the bioremediation of contaminated soils. A review of the research suggests that these microbes are underutilized due to CO2 inhibition of growth. Proper cultivation of these microbes in a bioreactor followed by bioaugmentation in the subsurface and soluble CO2 control could be the key to reducing the costs.
Known Autotrophic Microbe Opportunities – Ruminant Bioaugmentation Using Acetogens
With the current interests in reducing methane emissions from ruminants, the bioaugmentation of ruminants with acetogens may be of interest. Shifting the fermentation end products of hydrogen and carbon dioxide away from CO2 reducing methanogens and towards acetogens may reduce methane emissions. It is unclear whether the higher concentration of acetate in the rumen would be problematic due to depressed pH. The use of an autotroph that generates longer chain short chained fatty acids (SCFA) may be the key.
Predicted Autotrophic Microbe Opportunities
Autotrophic microbes are underutilized, because we don’t understand how carbon dioxide inhibits their growth at elevated concentration. Decades ago, thermodynamics was used to predict Anammox, but it took a decade for scientists to isolate and characterize the first Anammox strain. If they knew how carbon dioxide inhibits the growth of Anammox, it would’ve only taken a few weeks. (On a side note, I used a bioreactor to enrich for Anammox in a few weeks. I estimated the doubling time of a few hours. I’ll post some images of my bioreactor and Anammox in the future) I used the same thermodynamic analysis to predict several new metabolic classes.
Novel Alkanogens
A previous blog post described the possibility of several alkanogens capable of extending the length of an existing alkane by one carbon (-CH2) using carbon dioxide and hydrogen gases. Could these novel alkanogens be responsible for the NGL in natural gas? Subsurface conditions could be suitable for the growth of these microbes.
Novel Alcohologens
Similar to the alkanogens, there may be several alcohologens capable of extending the length of an existing alcohol by one carbon (-CH2) using carbon dioxide and hydrogen gases. The utilization of alcohologens may be of interest to the green ethanol producers, since it could generate butanol, a higher quality biofuel.
Novel SCFA Methylating Bacteria
The third novel autotroph class are the SCFA Methylating Bacteria capable of extending the length of an existing SCFA by one carbon (-CH2) using carbon dioxide and hydrogen gases. These novel autotrophs could be of interest for reducing methane emissions in ruminants, while providing feed efficiency gains. For humans, a probiotic consisting of SCFA Methylating Bacteria could improve human health and reduce methane emissions.
Unseparated Hydrogen and CO2
For each of the novel autotrophs described above, carbon dioxide and hydrogen gases will be needed for cultivation. In some cases, the use of renewable or green reactant gases could generate additional revenue, such as RIN credits.
The various types of hydrogen are described in the table below. Of note, Blue, Grey, and Black or Brown Hydrogen generate CO2 in addition to hydrogen. Left together, this BioNGL source gas could be provided at a lower cost. Blue hydrogen production generates 4 moles H2 for every mole of CO2, which would require additional captured CO2 for BioNGL production. Recall that each step of BioNGL production uses 3 moles H2 for each mole of CO2. On-site Blue Hydrogen production by a Natural Gas Processor could eliminate the CO2 emissions from transport.
Captured CO2 at or near the Natural Gas Processor have very low CO2 emissions. Carbon dioxide used in the bioreactor system offset CO2 emissions for a net reduction of more than 20%, which qualifies for D6 RIN credit. The generation of RIN credit for BioNGL requires a petition to U.S. EPA’s Renewable Fuel Standard Program.
BioNGL Bridges the Gap Between Natural Gas and Crude Oil
Natural Gas Processors collect NGL from wet gas. The price of crude oil, where oil processors generate NGL in much greater volumes, determines profitability. With BioNGL, Natural Gas Processors have an opportunity to generate greater amounts of NGL from the incorporation of both hydrogen and CO2. Lower cost hydrogen and CO2 will be necessary for BioNGL to be profitable without D6 RIN credits.
Novel Alcohologens for Biofuel Production
This blog post describes four opportunities for using novel autotrophic alcohologens for #biofuel production (methanol, ethanol, propanol, and butanol) from #corn #fermentation end products. A general commercial pathway is also provided. This opportunity should interest corn fermentation companies, Hydrogen production companies, and ESG investors.
Green Products
Novel Probiotics
This blog post describes three novel autotrophic probiotics for environmental and health benefits. Short chained fatty acid (SCFA) methylation by propiogens, butyrogens, and valerogens are predicted by thermodynamic analysis. For example, the propiogen uses #hydrogen and CO2 to methylate acetate and produce propionate. The SCFA generated by these autotrophs may also qualify as green biomolecules for food and chemical manufacturers. A general commercial pathway is also provided. Probiotic and Supplement companies, Hydrogen production companies, and ESG investors should be interested.
Autotrophic BioReactor System
This blog post describes two autotrophic bioreactor systems capable of producing probiotics, SCFA, Alcohols, and Alkanes. The simpler system consists of 3 product silos. The advanced system includes two new classes of autotrophic microbes that reduce SCFA to Alcohols and Alcohols to Alkanes. This advanced configuration allows for the production of multiple products at various carbon numbers for maximum profits.
Commercialization Pathway for Autotrophic Microbes for Green Energy and Products
If there’s interest in these opportunities, then follow the three step plan for commercialization. For Green Energy opportunities, you will need to petition the US EPA for recognition of the advanced biofuel pathway.
Secure License for Patents
Existing companies will need to secure the license for the patents from the University of South Florida (USF). Investors will need to form a company prior to licensing the patents. I may be interested in providing my services with an existing company or a newly formed company. Send me an email for USF contact information.
Isolate and Characterize Novel Autotrophic Microbes for Green Energy and Products
This commercialization plan requires the isolation and characterization of novel autotrophic microbes. The combination of a proper anaerobic, autotrophic microbiology laboratory and a skilled microbiologist should suffice. The laboratory will require chromatography for gas and liquid characterization. Growth rate information for isolates will be necessary for bioreactor design. I’m available to assist in this effort.
Demonstrate Bioreactors System
With the novel autotrophs properly characterized, design a simple bioreactor system for a simple demonstration using reactants of interest. A successful demonstration provides a good estimate of the potential profitability of the bioreactor system for each novel autotroph.
Invest in Glixin for Green Energy and Products and Blood Oxidative Stress
Alternatively, an investor may be interested in investing in Glixin with my company securing the license and managing the research efforts for exploiting autotrophic microbes. Glixin is developing a blood test for measuring blood oxidative stress. I’m estimating that 2/3 of adult Americans is the market for this blood test. For 100 million obese Americans, the wellness market could be 0.1% or 100,000 annual tests. Licensing the blood test to a large medical testing company like Quest Diagnostics or LabCorp could generate $4M annually for a $40 licensing fee. A disease diagnostic test would require clinical trials, but the market would be much larger. At 10% market penetration and bi-annual testing, the licensing revenue could reach $800M annually. That revenue estimate would put Glixin in the Unicorn range. Investment in Glixin would hedge your bets with the potential to be a rather large company.
More Information Available
I provided a video that describes multiple business opportunities for exploiting autotrophic microbes for generating green energy and products. These include markets in Agriculture, Environmental Remediation, Water and Wastewater Treatment, Metals Recovery, BioEnergy, and Animal and Human Health. In the future, I’ll provide new blog posts that describe opportunities for generating BioButanol and novel autotrophic probiotics for ruminants that reduce methane emissions.
Send Me Your Questions
Send me your questions about exploiting autotrophic microbes for generating green energy and products described in this blog post to pete@glixin.com.
