Dynamic Model of Bio-conversion of Methane to Polyhydroxybutyrate Using
Dynamic Flux Balance Analysis
Abstract
Biological conversion of waste methane to biodegradable plastics is a
way of reducing their production cost due to expensive raw materials.
This study addresses the computational modeling of the growth phase
reactor of this innovative process. The model was used for investigating
the effect of gas recycling and inlet gas retention time on the
performance of the reactor. The bioreactor model was implemented with
the use of a genome-scale metabolic network of Methylocystis hirsuta
using dynamic flux balance analysis with and without consideration of
axial distributions within the reactor. The reactor has been modeled for
two separate scenarios. The first scenario is a pure methane feed in a
reactor with 0.5 micro-meter diffuser pore size, and the second is a
biogas feed in a reactor with two micro-meter diffusers pore size. As
the reactions of this process occur in the liquid phase, the mass
transfer coefficient is an important parameter. For both reactors, this
parameter was predicted in dependence on superficial gas velocities with
the combination of data from experiments and our model. The results show
an increase of removal efficiency by 35% and biomass concentration by
1.7 g/L with the increase of gas recycle ratio from 0 to 30 at the empty
bed residence time of 60 min.