Processes and systems for metabolite production using hydrogen rich C1-containing substrates

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10808263-B2
Application number	US-201816123464-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 6, 2018
Priority date	Sep 8, 2017
Publication date	Oct 20, 2020
Grant date	Oct 20, 2020

Abstract

The invention is directed to a process for producing one or more fermentation product in a multi-stage process including an inoculation reactor and at least one bioreactor. The inoculation reactor is fed a C1-containing gaseous substrate containing a reduced amount of hydrogen. The hydrogen is reduced to increase the proportion of CO in the C1-containing gaseous substrate being provided to the inoculation reactor. The inoculation reactor ferments the CO-rich C1-containing gaseous substrate and produces an inoculum, which is fed to at least one bioreactor. The bioreactor receives the C1-containing gaseous substrate, which may or may not contain reduced amounts of hydrogen, to produce one or more fermentation product. By providing a CO-rich C1-containing gaseous substrate to the inoculation reactor, both the inoculation reactor and the subsequent bioreactor(s), are able to have increased stability and product selectivity.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A process for producing one or more fermentation products, the process comprising;
a. providing a CO-rich C1-containing gaseous substrate to an inoculation reactor comprising a liquid nutrient medium containing a culture of one or more C1-fixing microorganism;
b. fermenting the CO-rich C1-containing gaseous substrate to produce an inoculum;
c. passing at least a portion of the inoculum to a bioreactor system, the bioreactor system comprising at least one bioreactor containing a culture of one or more C1-fixing microorganism in a liquid nutrient medium;
d. passing an H 2 rich C1-containing gaseous substrate to the bioreactor system; and
e. fermenting the H 2 rich C1-containing gaseous substrate to produce at least one fermentation product.

2. The process of claim 1 , wherein the CO-rich C1-containing gaseous substrate comprises H 2 at an H 2 :CO molar ratio of less than 1:1.

3. The process of claim 1 , wherein the CO-rich C1-containing gaseous substrate comprises H 2 at an H 2 :CO molar ratio of less than 0.5:1.

4. The process of claim 1 , wherein the CO-rich C1-containing gaseous substrate comprises H 2 at an H 2 :CO molar ratio between 0.02:1 to 1:1.

5. The process of claim 1 , wherein the H 2 rich C1-containing gaseous substrate comprises H 2 at an H 2 :CO molar ratio of at least 1.1:1.

6. The process of claim 1 , wherein the H 2 rich C1-containing gaseous substrate comprises H 2 at an H 2 :CO molar ratio between 1.1:1 to 6:1.

7. The process of claim 1 , wherein the C1-fixing microorganism is a carboxydotrophic bacterium.

8. The process of claim 7 , wherein the carboxydotrophic bacterium is selected from the group consisting of Moorella, Clostridium, Ruminococcus, Acetobacterium, Eubacterium, Butyribacterium, Oxobacter, Methanosarcina , and Desulfotomaculum.

9. The process of claim 7 , wherein the carboxydotrophic bacterium is Clostridium autoethanogenum.

10. The process of claim 1 wherein the bioreactor system comprises one or more primary bioreactors linked to one or more secondary bioreactors.

Assignees

• Lanzatech Inc

Inventors

• Conrado Robert John
• Waters Guy William
• Puglisi Matthew
• Conolly Joshua Jeremy

Classifications

• C12P13/02

  Amides, e.g. chloramphenicol {or polyamides; Imides or polyimides; Urethanes, i.e. compounds comprising N-C=O structural element or polyurethanes (peptides C12P21/00 or C07K)} · CPC title

• C12P7/649

  Biodiesel, i.e. fatty acid alkyl esters · CPC title

• C12P7/64

  Fats; Fatty oils; Ester-type waxes; Higher fatty acids, i.e. having at least seven carbon atoms in an unbroken chain bound to a carboxyl group; Oxidised oils or fats · CPC title

• C12P7/26

  Ketones · CPC title

• C12P7/02

  containing a hydroxy group · CPC title