What is it about?
Methane is a highly potent greenhouse gas, with a warming factor over 80-fold that of CO2 on a 20-year timescale. Atmospheric methane abundance has risen to a historically high value at 1.92 ppm in 2023 and continues to increase rapidly. In nature, methane eating bacteria (called methanotrophs) remove methane and generate cells (biomass). Thus, these bacteria are candidates for methane removal technology. to slow global warming. We demonstrate here that an existing methanotroph, called Methylotuvimicrobium buryatense 5GB1C, can grow well at low methane concentrations in the range from 200 ppm to 1000 ppm and exhibits greater methane consumption rates at both low and high methane compared to other methanotroph strains. These features make this strain a promising candidate for methane removal technology at emission sites with enriched methane in air.
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Why is it important?
If effective methane-removal strategies can be developed and deployed, they have the potential to slow global warming by 2050. This bacterium will serve as the basis for an environmentally-friendly methane removal solution with the co-benefit of generating sustainable protein for fish food.
Perspectives
This work is a first step in developing effective and feasible methanotroph-based methane removal technology. Much remains ahead, including improving the methane removal capability of the bacterium and developing efficient bioreactor designs that work well at the low methane levels needed.
Mary Lidstrom
University of Washington
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: A methanotrophic bacterium to enable methane removal for climate mitigation, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, August 2023, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2310046120.
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